I feel the comparison to American Educational system is rather unfair, the American Higher Education being much more evolved and the best there is. IMHO Indian Education system would compare favorably to many other countries with the same socio-economic factors. This is not to say the system does not need to improve, but so does the Education system everywhere else (more of the sort of MOOCs/Khan Academy for instance; college fees have been increasing sharply in India).
In my personal opinion historically the Colleges in India were more occupied by handing out more degrees and not education. To go beyond the routine was always due to self initiatives of the select few and not the majority. If the colleges increased the standards higher than the usual then a majority of students would fail ( "out of syllabus" was a regular complaint if the exams were too hard). This is not a critique of the Educational system, rather I feel glad that my Indian college education was easy enough to let me pursue avenues which benefited me more than what was taught in classroom. A degree from a reputed Indian college is only to open doors, what you learn depends entirely on how motivated you are.
In my personal opinion historically the Colleges in India were more occupied by handing out more degrees and not education. To go beyond the routine was always due to self initiatives of the select few and not the majority. If the colleges increased the standards higher than the usual then a majority of students would fail ( "out of syllabus" was a regular complaint if the exams were too hard). This is not a critique of the Educational system, rather I feel glad that my Indian college education was easy enough to let me pursue avenues which benefited me more than what was taught in classroom. A degree from a reputed Indian college is only to open doors, what you learn depends entirely on how motivated you are.