In its civilizational journey, the Indian society had always recognized the significance of rational thinking and appropriate technologies. Pre-colonial India had made significant contributions in the realm of astronomy, mathematics and medicine. Colonial India received new ideas and modern institutions. Development discourse appears in the twentieth century wherein one finds both the colonizer and the colonized discussing the different measures and relevance of development. The national movement which progressed during this period was not only about independence but also about re-making of the nation and the society.  The ideas of eminent Indians like Gandhi, Tagore and Nehru are thus extremely important in this context. What role did the Indian scientists and engineers play in this discourse? How did an independent India cope with the fast-changing situation? What were its strength and weaknesses? These are some of the questions this talk would try to deal with relevant examples.

About the Speaker

During last four decades Deepak Kumar has worked and published on different aspects of science and society issues in the context of colonial India. He is known for his book Science and the Raj (OUP, 2^nd Ed., 2006). His latest work is Trishanku Nation: Memory, Self and Society in Contemporary India (OUP, forthcoming, Jan.2016).