Science and the Raj, 1857-1905

Download or read book Science and the Raj, 1857-1905 written by Deepak Kumar and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1995 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the links between science, technology and the process of colonization in the context of Victorian India. It begins with a study of the concept of colonial science and then moves on to early exploratory activities in this area; problems in science administration; science education; scientific researches; and Indian responses to all these activities. Colonial scientists had a dual mandate - to serve the state and to serve science. But as the colonial arteries hardened, science became a form of official knowledge, with official hierarchies and rituals. The evolution and progress of colonial science in India reveal a pattern which can be discerned. Science had an ideology, a string of institutions, and a set of committed people to serve very specific colonial ends. The questions asked are: what were the colonial postures in science? To what extent were scientific knowledge and discourses used to achieve political and cultural goals? How did the recipient culture appropriate or redefine the metropolitan ideology of science?