Author: S. Irfan Habib
Several Contributors/
Translator(s)/ Edito: S. Irfan Habib/Dhruv Raina
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 395
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195681576
Description
Can science be seen as the flag bearer of the 'civilizing mission' dispelling the darkness of centuries of superstition? Did the installation of new technological systems displace ancient primitive techniques? Rejecting the simplistic notion of transmission of science and technology, this reader argues for a variety of perspectives. Part of the prestigious themes in Indian history series, it provides an excellent introduction to the world of science and technology in colonial India.
Departing from the standard practice of seeing science as a cultural universal, Social History of Science in Colonial India emphasizes the need for redrawing boundaries long taken for granted. It investigates how modern science--considered a pristine western cultural import--was reconstituted in the encounter with other ways of knowing and acting on the world.
Bringing together some of the finest--even rare--writings on the subject, this volume highlights the multiplicity of historiographic positions on colonial science and the changing landscapes for the study of science in South Asia. The contributors approach issues related to science and colonialism from a variety of scientific disciplines. They engage with the drift produced by the entanglement of science and values and the complicity of the scientific project in that of imperialism. This reader will be indispensable for course related to history and sociology of science. It will also be an important resource for students and scholars of modern Indian history and those engaged with the study of science and society in colonial India.
Contents
Series Note
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Cultural Trends in Pre-colonial India: An Overview
K.N. PANIKKAR
The Ideologies and Practices of Mapping and
Imperialism
MATTHEW H. EDNEY
The Character of the Introduction of Western
Science in India during the Eighteenth and the
Nineteenth Centuries
S.N. SEN
Colonial Encounters and the Forging of New
Knowledge and National Identities: Great Britain
And India, 1769-1850
KAPIL RAJ
Science, Technology, and Colonial Power
ZAHEER BABER
Science and Policy in British India, 1858-1914:
Perspectives on a Persisting Belief
RUSSELL DIONNE AND ROY MACLEOD
Science, Technology, and Imperialism in India
IAN INKSTER
Copernicus, Columbus, Colonialism, and the
Role of Science in Nineteenth-century India
S. IRFAN HABIB AND BHRUV RAINA
The Image of the Archaic
GYAN PRAKASH
The rise of Industrial Research
SHIV VISVANATHAN
Response to western Science: Failure and
Successes
SUBRATA DASGUPTA
Reconstructing India: Disunity in the Science and
Technology for Development Discourse, 1900-47
DEEPAK KUMAR
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors