Indian higher education has entered a phase of intense quality scrutiny, driven jointly by the massification agenda of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the tightening benchmarks of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Within this environment, Total Quality Management (TQM) — a management philosophy born in industrial manufacturing — and the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) — a statutory mechanism unique to the Indian accreditation ecosystem — have increasingly been discussed together, yet the conceptual and empirical linkage between the two is rarely made explicit in a single, integrative account. This review synthesises 43 peer-reviewed articles, institutional reports, and policy documents published between 2021 and 2026 to examine how TQM principles are operationalised through IQAC structures in Indian higher education institutions (HEIs). Using a PRISMA-informed screening process, the review develops an integrated TQM–IQAC conceptual framework, maps Malcolm Baldrige–derived TQM vectors on to the seven NAAC assessment criteria, and traces the empirical evidence linking IQAC functioning to accreditation grades and National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) performance. The review finds consistent evidence that leadership commitment, stakeholder (student) focus, and continuous-improvement routines are the TQM dimensions most strongly embedded in NAAC's evaluative architecture, while documentation burden, uneven regional capacity, and a persistent compliance-over-culture tension remain the principal obstacles to converting IQAC activity into genuine quality culture. The paper also considers the emerging role of artificial intelligence in accreditation data processing as a potential accelerant of the TQM ‘data-driven decision-making’ pillar. The review concludes with a research agenda emphasising longitudinal, mixed-method investigation of the TQM–IQAC linkage across India's diverse institutional landscape.