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The Colonial “Model” and the Emergence of National Science in India: 1876–1920
Abstract
Basalla’s three stages “model” for the spread of modern, Western science has in recent years come under serious criticism1. The inadequacy of this diffusionist “model” to reflect sufficiently upon the sociocultural and politico-economic relations of Western science with recipient cultures continues to draw the attention of scholars. In doing so, the analysis of individual scientists, scientific institutions and the practice of science is increasingly brought within the ambit of sociology of knowledge in a historical mould2. Such an approach enables us to penetrate beneath the contours of the colonial science “model” of Basalla to enquire how recipient cultures perceive and respond to Western science and how the experience of one society varies across other cultural contexts. Recognizing that a justification for such an exercise requires a larger work than the present paper, an attempt is made here to focus on the scientific enterprise in India during 1876–1920. It focuses largely on the period prominently categorized as colonial science by Basalla. Further, this paper attempts to examine Basalla’s inescapable conclusion that “colonial science contains in an embryonic form, some of the essential features of the next stage” through the definition of colonial scientist.
... Devoid of its intellectual essence, the goal of scientific practice in the colony was not the advancement of science but the exploration of natural resources, flora and fauna (Mukherjee 1989) to feed the intellectual and industrial 'revolutions' in the metropolis. As argued elsewhere (Krishna 1992), the definition of colonial science fits well with the activity undertaken by scientific enterprises such as the geology, education and survey departments. The Asiatic Society of Bengal cooperated with the British Geological Society to promote Indian resources development. ...
... 3. Visvanathan (1985) is, however, an exception. Adhikari (1987) deals at length with growth patterns of science in terms of 'extractive and servicing mode', 'intelligensia-generated mode' and 'state-organized mode' which I share with her in so far as I am talking in terms of colonial science and non-colonial independent tradition in science (see also Krishna 1992). However, given Adhikari's objective to specify its (science) different organizational modes of existence and their social dynamics of growth and change, the interaction perspective was not specifically directed to establish the emergence of an Indian scientific community. ...
... Basalla's 3-phase model has been severely criticized by some prominent history of science scholars, social historians of modern Indian science (Patra & Muchie, 2017, Raina, 1999, Dasgupta, 2024, Krishna, 1992. In the similar line, Kochchar (1991, 1992, and 1993) proposed three stage models for the growth and advent of modern science in India. ...
The genesis and development of science education and scientific research in British India is quite well explored domain. There are many hypotheses on the advancement of science in colonies. This stream of discourse named as 'Colonial Science'. Within the analytical framework of 'colonial science', this paper is an attempt to map medical research in British India through a journal content analysis. From the available literature it is evident that there were a number of medical journals published in British India. Among them, one of the most famous medical journals was the "Indian Medical Gazette". The Gazette started in 1866 and continued till 1955. It was mainly run by the Indian Medical Services (IMS) officers. Within its 90 years of existence, it played an active role in shaping medical research in British India. The systematic data of Indian Medical Gazette is available through PubMed, an online repository of global biomedical journals. Through the content analysis of "The Indian Medical Gazette", this study tries to map medical research in British India. This research article analyse publication pattern, the most prolific authors and their affiliations. Further, through the content analysis and word cloud this study has identified most frequently occurring keywords and their importance in the medical research of British India.
... This idea of colonial science has been contested, confronted and refined over the years [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] . According to these historians, science existed even before the establishment of the British colonies. ...
Scientific publications and different types of collaboration pattern in pre-independent India are mapped using scientometrics and social network analysis tools. Publication data of Indian authors published before 1947 are downloaded from the Scopus database of Elsevier science. The study traces the literature growth patterns, core journals, productive authors, authorship collaboration patterns, productive institutions and their collaboration patterns. The result shows that maximum literature was published in the year 1936. The growth of publications during the mid-1930s was evident as many scientific institutions were established by that time. The subject-wise maximum activity was observed in chemistry followed by agricultural and biological science. Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences was the most preferred journals. Universities played the prominent role in scientific research. Some private institutions with ‘nationalistic’ enthusiasm, for example, Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institute for Cultivation of Science were very productive institutions and also prominent in institutional collaboration. These institutions started in the colonial period continue to be the pillars of modern science in India. © 2017, National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR). All rights reserved.
... 19. Grove, 1990 Krishna, 1992; Saldaña, 1990 and 1993 ...
... Hence not only the non-west is deleted from what is happening in Europe, but this is happening precisely because broader political economy is not looked at: There is an epistemological privileging, even though Knorr Cetina's interest lies in analysing "machineries of knowledge production". 11 Recent postcolonial scholarship has questioned the proposed one way relationship between the centre (west) and the periphery (non-west) by showing how science in the "periphery", at some levels, had developed autonomously and how the periphery contributed in the making of the "centre" [Macleod 1987;Krishna 1992;Raina 1999]. Scholars have also analysed differing cultural reception and cultural redefinition of science in the periphery [Habib and Raina 1989]. ...
In recent times, proponents of alternative sciences have been celebrated as well as chastised. This paper critically analyses the modern versus alternative science debate. Postcolonial critiques of Eurocentric constructions of modern science and recent empirical studies provide the context for this study. It does not, however, provide a defence for alternative sciences, because even though their proponents critique modern science and its Eurocentric constructions, their studies, at one level, are over-determined by claims about modern science's unified, universalistic, and Eurocentric character. There is a surfeit of academic analyses of science as well as government policy documents on scientific research in India, but these provide little insight into how particular techno-scientific researches are conducted in India. This article, through a study of magnetic resonance imaging research in India and the US, based on interviews, observations, and analysis of scientific papers, argues that the relationship between scientific practice, knowledge, and culture is contingent upon particular historical and socio-technical contexts.
... Darlington's attitude here encompassed both prejudice against Ammal's gender and her race and was typical of the colonial attitudes of the time to Indian scientists in general who were seen as lacking the capacity for creative and innovative research. 56 Ammal was critical of the fawning attitude of Indian scientists based at the sugarcane institute, especially that of Venkatraman to British scientist's such as Ruggles Gates. 57 This view was in tandem with her increasing disillusionment with her own position. ...
... Eurocentric diffusion models have informed even the critiques of the impact of European colonialism in the development of science and technology in India (see, for example, Headrick, 1988: 10). For critiques of Basalla's model see MacLeod (1987), Chambers (1987), Krishna (1992Krishna ( , 2001, and Raina (1999 Lenoir (1997) for a description of development of NMR. 13. Relaxation time is the time taken by, for example, hydrogen atoms to come back to their normal state after the external magnetic field that is used in NMR is removed. ...
Debate over 'scientific culture' is often over-determined by universalistic and Eurocentric constructions of 'modern science'. In this paper I have attempted to ground this debate through an analysis of the culture of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research in India. My analysis is based upon observations of and interviews with scientists working in the MRI and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) laboratories and government officials who regulate techno-scientific research in India. I argue that even though some common characteristics of scientific practices in India are discernible, we cannot attribute them to ahistorical cognitive or social aspects of the Indian society. We also cannot argue that such practices exist because of the absence of a 'scientific community', whose members share 'scientific values'. I draw on empirical studies of scientific knowledge and practice, as well as postcolonial studies, to show how particular practices with MRI and NMR in India, which have to do with scientific collaboration and patenting, make perfect sense if they are seen in relation to global and national networks of power and administration. I argue that scientific cultures are dialectically related to networks of regulatory and laboratory practices, and that they change as the networks change, as we are beginning to witness in India. © SSS and SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks CA, New Delhi).
... The distinction between the two groups progressively died out as training diversified. Despite the existence of some nationalist trends, Nigeria does not seem to have experienced any real conflict between national and colonial modes of the magnitude known in India (see Krishna, 1992). ...
This article discusses how the notion of "diffusionism" has functioned as a straw man in the history of technology. This has prevented it from becoming fully global and symmetrical. In contrast, the second section of this article offers an example of what a symmetrical account of the global history of technology might look like, using the case of chlorination in the early twentieth century. Focusing on London, Bogotá, and Jersey City, it shows that chlorination was initially rejected in each of these places but was later adopted in all of them for economic reasons after discussions that took the same form. It concludes by suggesting that global histories of technology must treat North and South, East and West, center and periphery, and metropole and colony symmetrically, drawing out similarities and differences based on the available evidence without assuming them in advance.
This chapter on the emergence of Indian scientific community explores the contribution of leading Indian scientists in laying the foundations for professionalization of science and advancement of scientific knowledge during 1870s and 1940s. As the chapter demonstrates, leading scientists in this era such as Mahenderlal Sircar, Ashutosh Mukherjee, C. V. Raman, M. N. Saha, P. C. Ray and S. N. Bose, to name some, waged an intellectual struggle against the British colonial gate keepers who resisted local and indigenous initiatives in the professionalization of science. In collaboration with Indian political elite, systematic efforts were directed at laying the foundations for cultivation of science institutions from translation of science into local languages, popularization of science, promotion of science teaching in colleges and higher institutions of learning to basic scientific research. These developments have come about relatively independent or outside the confines of colonial science enterprises promoted by British colonial regime. Between 1890s and 1940s half a dozen advance research specialist groups emerged in plant physiology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and astronomy. In a large measure, the genesis of Indian science community had taken roots outside the confines of colonial science enterprises as these institutions were not conducive for the professionalization of science and the advancement of knowledge. Indian scientific intellectual struggle in laying the foundations of basic research during this period had dented the Centre-Periphery relations or dichotomy in science practiced by British colonial scientific enterprise. This chapter challenges the basic assertion of key classical colonial thinkers, such as George Basalla, that independent scientific tradition in the colonial era emerged outside the confines of colonial science enterprises.
Banaras also known as Varanasi and Kashi is one of the greatest centres of education and learning since ancient times. The city has been called as ‘The city of temples’, ‘The religious capital of India’, ‘The cultural capital of India’, ‘The city of light’, and ‘The city of learning’. Philosophers, men of science and educationalists have lived and worked here, making Banaras a leading seat of learning. Long before the advent of the modern age, Banaras enthusiastically embraced the learning of mathematics, astronomy and medicine. In this lineage of a tradition of knowledge of the city, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya established Banaras Hindu University in 1916. Among many departments of knowledge at BHU, modern physics was greatly encouraged and promoted by its founder. Malaviya himself exerted to bring many scientists to BHU to enthuse the cultivation of science. Here we will see the story of the physicists appointed in the early years of BHU, who contributed to the world of physics in their own humble right. They did their own small part in physics that helped develop the discipline in India. The paper attempts to unearth a very important and formative slice of India’s history in modern science, exemplified by Banaras Hindu University as a single campus university with both teaching and research in physics.
This article concerns the development of archaeology and museology, in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey and Greece, through the life and career of Théodore Macridy. Macridy participated in knowledge transfer in more than one discipline and more than one country. Through his links with Western academic circles in archaeology and museology, he made a significant contribution to their development in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey and Greece. Living between the Ottoman and Greek epistemic communities as an Ottoman citizen of Greek origin, he excavated numerous sites of the Ottoman Empire, worked at the Ottoman Imperial Museum, and contributed to the foundation of the Benaki Museum in Athens at the end of his career. This makes him a good example of an Ottoman Greek scholar whose liminal identity led to his relative neglect in both Greek and Turkish archaeology and museology.
A global academic division of labor plagues contemporary academic production. The epistemological implications assign southern knowledge to the status of “data” for the use of northern “theory.” The institutional consequences affect the training and promotion of scholars, and the distribution of academic resources. The persistence of global power relations in academic production is an indicator of the achievement of the West in establishing a Eurocentric relationship with the rest of the world. This paper looks at the manifestations of the contemporary academic division of labor in scholarly writing. We examine articles published in three international academic journals, based in Japan, Turkey, and the United States, and focus on the different ways in which authors use geographic markers, words that indicate that a title, an abstract, or a sentence is written in reference to a particular location—a country, a city, or another geographic entity. Scholarship in the North relies on a writing style that reflects and reproduces its privileged position in the global academic division of labor. However, southern scholars tend to write in a style that makes heavy use of geographic markers, which reflects their underprivileged position in global academic world as “case” or “data” producers for northern theory.
Cambridge Core - History of Science and Technology - Science and the State - by John Gascoigne
The History of Colonial Science and Medicine in British India: Centre-Periphery Perspective
Mit ihrem Anliegen, eurozentrische Wissenssysteme und Wissensordnungen kritisch zu untersuchen, entwickelte sich die Forschungsrichtung der Postcolonial Studies in den letzten Dekaden zu einem zentralen Zweig in der Geschichte des Wissens und der Wissenschaften.
This paper compares the sewerage constructed within the foreign settlement in Kobe in the early Meiji era with those in other cities colonized by Western powers. In such colonial cities, the colonists suffered from many infectious diseases while they were implementing ideal city plans there. Some previous studies referring to sewerage in colonial cities such as Calcutta, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Yokohama have shown that Westerners have ascribed those problems to the local environment and people, so they have built sewerage in the planning of such colonial cities because they believed that it was an important sanitary facility.
On the other hand, few previous studies have examined this aspect in relation to foreign settlement in Kobe, similarly a colonial city, so most previous studies have not been able to explain enough the significance of sewerage to Westerners or the process of its construction there. For example, some previous studies consider the sewerage in foreign settlement in Kobe simply as “a modern urban facility by Westerners,” and some neglect the “drains” which had been in existence in the foreign settlement in Kobe before the construction of sewerage. It is impossible to explain why the colonists were not satisfied with the existing drains and constructed the new sewerage without referring to these drains. First, this paper shows that Westerners in the foreign settlement in Kobe held a concept of sanitation, the “miasma theory,” by referring to articles in the English-language newspapers of the early Meiji era. This concept was identified in other colonial cities, and was a main impetus for the construction of sewerage in the foreign settlement in Kobe. Then, this paper pays attention to a difference in building forms between drains and sewerage, and indicates that Westerners in the foreign settlement in Kobe needed sewerage laid under the ground, and not drains open to the air, in order to avoid infectious diseases.
With reference to case studies about Western colonial cities, and in examining how sewerage was built in the foreign settlement in Kobe, this paper explains its significance and process leading towards its construction.
In the half century since World War II, the time span that constitutes the post-colonial era, the direction and substance of South-North relations have changed both repeatedly and markedly.1 The decisive, underlying dynamics of South-North exchange have been predicated on at least three components: (i) shifting Northern appraisal of South-North interaction; (ii) Southern reorientation and growing assertiveness; (iii) a cognitive component, entailing a variety of analytic approaches, which include academic models drawn from various disciplines, bureaucracy linked expertise and, relatively recently, a growing contribution by science, technology and society studies (STSS) and policy initiatives for the South.2 Transformations in the contents of these components and in the configuration among them, have to a remarkable degree accompanied, and sometimes induced, revisions in the conduct of colonial powers (old and new) and in the posture of the formerly colonized countries that have often been the scene of new forms of influence and domination.
This essay compares the way in which Russia and Ireland have defined themselves since the mid-nineteenth century as scientific nations (or not) by following the careers of D. I. Mendeleev (1834-1907) and Thomas Andrews (1813-85), both of whom were involved in the discovery of the "critical point" boundary between liquids and gases. Mendeleev and Andrews deployed their critical-point research in a similar fashion to integrate science into the national identity for their respective countries, a strategy that proved far more successful for Mendeleev than for Andrews.
The development of sociology in Africa and Latin America has remained largelyunder-researched until now. Ongoing debates on the globalisation of economy andsociety, as well as the increasingly cross-national activities of the scholarlycommunity, have been enhancing reflections on the internationalisation orglobalisation of the discipline, a topic on the agenda of each of the more recentWorldCongresses of Sociology. Diverging perceptions of these processes within sociologyhave been articulated, opposing those who argue for the internationalisation orglobalisation of the discipline without explicitly insisting on present North-Southdivides (Albrow/King 1990; Archer 1991; Genov 1991) on the one hand, and thosewho insist on the disadvantaged position of, for instance, African (Adesina 2002) orIndian (Oommen 1991) sociologies, on the other hand. The debate around theglobalisation of sociology, political and often polemical at first sight, illustrates theincreasingly difficult articulation between the universalistic claims of the discipline assuch and its particular developments locally or nationally (Berthelot 1998; Keim2006), and is thus of epistemological importance as well.
Four science and technology (S & T) policy cultures - political-bureaucratic; industry-market; academic; and civic - are conceptualised to explore the institutional growth of S & T in India during the last five decades. Different phases and trends are traced: 1947-1970, optimism in 'policy for the sciences'; 1970s-1990, from optimism to critical evaluation; and after 1991, new economic reforms, liberalization and globalisation. Personalities in science and politics who have played an important part in shaping India's S & T policies during different phases are explored. The paper then focuses on the contemporary challenges in S & T policy in this era of market reforms and globalisation. How are these factors influencing the research system? What institutional changes are being introduced? What are the implications concerning 'science as public good' vs 'science as market good'?.
I am grateful to the Executive Committee and the members of the Indian History Congress for electing me to preside over its section devoted to Modern Indian History. I deem it a great honour and would like to take this opportunity to dwell upon the relevance of social history of Science, Technology and Medicine (STM) for our region and culture. What I propose to present here is not a new research piece but a collage of existing researches on the theme interspersed with some key questions and observations. This synoptic survey is dedicated to the memory of Professor P.S. Gupta, our past President and a teacher whose erudition and simplicity inspired. Science as a rational exercise is intrinsic to human nature, so has been man's fascination for tools as homo faber. Indian society, through the ages, has been no exception to this. Centuries ago Said-al-Andalusi (1029-70) in his Tabaqat-al-Uman (probably the first work on history of science in any language) referred to India as the first nation which cultivated the sciences.1 In ancient India, medical men inspite of their scripture-orientation, insisted on the supreme importance of direct observation of natural phenomena and on the technique of a rational processing of the empirical data. The Carak Samhita, an ancient medical text, says, "To one who understands, knowledge of nature and love of humanity are not two things but one."2 Nothing could illustrate better the links between science and society. In relatively recent times the relevance of science for the society was not lost either on the colonizers or the colonized. In its very first
This article examines the process by which an occupational field that consisted of traditional intellectuals, hereditary practitioners and religious specialists attempted to reorder the public status of their learning and began to emerge with a self-conscious, corporate identity. Situated in colonial Punjab in the 1930s, it traces the responses of Ayurvedic practitioners or Vaids to the ideas and assumptions buttressing scientific, Western medicine and its validation of colonial rule. It argues that indigenous practitioners began to construct a discourse on indigenous science in the public sphere in Punjab that was mediated by the vernacular press and by newly formed corporate bodies. The attributes of Ayurvedic learning were gradually recast in the political idiom of language-based alignments and the claims of a tradition of indigenous science in turn legitimized a unified, singular Hindu nation. However, this process was constantly challenged by alternative interpretations of its vocabulary and competing political affiliations and interests.
There is no need to summarize the features of this simplified model, which describes the manner in which modern science was
transmitted to the lands beyond Western Europe. The graph of Fig. 1 and the examples drawn from science in various lands should
have made them clear. It may be in order, however, to reiterate that there is nothing about the phases of my model that is
cosmically or metaphysically necessary. I am satisfied if my attempt will interest others to go beyond my crude analysis and
make a systematic investigation of the diffusion of Western science throughout the world.
Such an investigation would include a comparative appraisal of the development of science in different national, cultural,
and social settings and would mark the beginnings of truly comparative studies in the history and sociology of science. The
present lack of comparative studies in these disciplines can be attributed to the widespread belief that science is strictly
an international endeavor. In one sense this is true.As Sir Isaac Newton remarked in his Principia (49), "the descent of stones
in Europe and in America" must both be explained by one set of physical laws. Yet, we cannot ignore the peculiar environment
in which members of a national group of scientists are trained and carry on their research.
While I do not hold with the Nazi theorists that science is a direct reflection of the racial or national spirit (50), neither
do I accept Chekhov's dictum (51) that "there is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table. .
. ." In emphasizing the international nature of scientific inquiry we have forgotten that science exists in a local social
setting. If that setting does not decisively mold the conceptual growth of science, it can at least affect the number and
types of individuals who are free to participate in the internal development of science. Perhaps the effect is more profound;
only future scholarship can determine the depth of its influence.
private aid was 54% of the total expenditure on education in Bengal which was increased to 56%
- Deepak Kumar
Bose on polarization of the Electric ray, observed “I have found time to look all through the pamphlet although not to learn all its contents but I have seen enough to fill me literally with wonder and admiration”, reported in The Dawn, under J. C. Bose interviewed in 1896
- Lord Kelvin
Cultural Foundations of a 19th century Mathematical Project
- D See
- I Raina
- Habib
The Study of Natural Sciences in the Indian Universities”, Part I to V, The Modern Review, Calcutta, 1909. Kirtikar studied the native Indian contribution to the development of science education in affiliated colleges
- K R Kirtikar
The staff included N The emphasis was laid on promoting swadeshi products. It had 124 students in
- M Sircar
- P C Nandi
- B N Ray
- J C Seal
- Basu
Organizing for Science: The Making of an Industrial Research Laboratory
- See Shiv Visvanathan
- Shiv Visvanathan
- S Visvanathan
Eugene Lafont and the Scientific Activity of Saint Xavier College, Calcutta (1860-1910)”, paper presented at a seminar on “Calcutta and Science
- A K Biswas
- AK Biswas
Bose’s article on “J. C. Bose and the Indian Tradition of Science
- See G Venkataraman
- D See
William O’Shaughnessy-an Innovator and Entrepreneur”, paper presented at a seminar on “Calcutta and Science
- Sarjoj Ghose
Chakravorti are few of those chemists who achieved national recognition. For further details see P. C. Ray, “Essays and Discourses
- Rasiklal Datta
- Nilratan Dhar
- Jitendranath Rakshit
- J C Ghosh
- J N Sen
- Jnanendranath Roy
- Pulin Bihari Sarkar
- A C Ghosh
- P C Bose
The emphasis was laid on promoting swadeshi products. It had 124 students in
- Included N The Staff
- M Sircar
- P C Nandi
- B N Ray
- J C Seal
- Basu
Roy to the Governor General protesting against the establishment of the Calcutta Sanskrit College
- R M Address
The Place of Science in the Vernacular Literature
- P C Ray
- PC Ray
Rao are some of the scientists who constituted the “Raman’s School of Physics” up to 1920. See, A Century: I ACS, A Century: IACS, (centenary volume of IACS), Calcutta; IACS
- A Dey
- S K Banerjee
- S Appasamyar
- S K Mitra
- D N Ghosh
- D Banerjee
- T J Chinmayanandan
For little more details of the associations, see Sumit Sarkar
- See Sumit Sarkar
The History of a Failure that was Great
- J C Bose
- JC Bose
Bose and the Indian Tradition of Science
- See D Bose
Some Eminent Bengali Pioneers in the Field of Technology”, paper presented at a seminar on “Calcutta and science
- See Sidharth Ghosh
The emphasis was laid on promoting swadeshi products
- N Sircar
- M Nandi
- P C Ray
- B N Seal
- J C Basu
Some Eminent Bengali Pioneers in the Field of Technology
- See Sidharth Ghosh
- SS Ghosh
For little more details of the associations, see Sumit Sarkar, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal
- See Sumit Sarkar
- S Sarkar
This report covers Punjab Science Institute, Lahore. For detailed studies on Aligarh and Bihar Scientific Societies, see Irfan Habib, “Institutional Efforts: Popularization of Science in the mid-19th Century
- I Habib
A Survey of Bengali writings on Science and Technology”
- D P Bhattacharya
- DP Bhattacharya
These examples are taken from an excellent study by
- WHG Armytage