[PDF] The Making Of Modern Physics In Colonial India eBook

Author : Somaditya Banerjee
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 35,61 MB
Release : 2020-05-14
Category : History
ISBN : 1317024699

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This monograph offers a cultural history of the development of physics in India during the first half of the twentieth century, focusing on Indian physicists Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970) and Meghnad Saha (1893-1956). The analytical category "bhadralok physics" is introduced to explore how it became possible for a highly successful brand of modern science to develop in a country that was still under colonial domination. The term Bhadralok refers to the then emerging group of native intelligentsia, who were identified by academic pursuits and manners. Exploring the forms of life of this social group allows a better understanding of the specific character of Indian modernity that, as exemplified by the work of bhadralok physicists, combined modern science with indigenous knowledge in an original program of scientific research. The three scientists achieved the most significant scientific successes in the new revolutionary field of quantum physics, with such internationally recognized accomplishments as the Saha ionization equation (1921), the famous Bose-Einstein statistics (1924), and the Raman Effect (1928), the latter discovery having led to the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a scientist from Asia. This book analyzes the responses by Indian scientists to the radical concept of the light quantum, and their further development of this approach outside the purview of European authorities. The outlook of bhadralok physicists is characterized here as "cosmopolitan nationalism," which allows us to analyze how the group pursued modern science in conjunction with, and as an instrument of Indian national liberation.

Author : Somaditya Banerjee
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 221 pages
File Size : 10,33 MB
Release : 2020-05-14
Category : History
ISBN : 1317024702

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This monograph offers a cultural history of the development of physics in India during the first half of the twentieth century, focusing on Indian physicists Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970) and Meghnad Saha (1893-1956). The analytical category "bhadralok physics" is introduced to explore how it became possible for a highly successful brand of modern science to develop in a country that was still under colonial domination. The term Bhadralok refers to the then emerging group of native intelligentsia, who were identified by academic pursuits and manners. Exploring the forms of life of this social group allows a better understanding of the specific character of Indian modernity that, as exemplified by the work of bhadralok physicists, combined modern science with indigenous knowledge in an original program of scientific research. The three scientists achieved the most significant scientific successes in the new revolutionary field of quantum physics, with such internationally recognized accomplishments as the Saha ionization equation (1921), the famous Bose-Einstein statistics (1924), and the Raman Effect (1928), the latter discovery having led to the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a scientist from Asia. This book analyzes the responses by Indian scientists to the radical concept of the light quantum, and their further development of this approach outside the purview of European authorities. The outlook of bhadralok physicists is characterized here as "cosmopolitan nationalism," which allows us to analyze how the group pursued modern science in conjunction with, and as an instrument of Indian national liberation.

Author : Renny Thomas
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 14,53 MB
Release : 2021-12-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1000534316

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This book provides an in-depth ethnographic study of science and religion in the context of South Asia, giving voice to Indian scientists and shedding valuable light on their engagement with religion. Drawing on biographical, autobiographical, historical, and ethnographic material, the volume focuses on scientists’ religious life and practices, and the variety of ways in which they express them. Renny Thomas challenges the idea that science and religion in India are naturally connected and argues that the discussion has to go beyond binary models of ‘conflict’ and ‘complementarity’. By complicating the understanding of science and religion in India, the book engages with new ways of looking at these categories.

Author : Dhruv Raina
Publisher :
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 28,92 MB
Release : 2004-01-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9788185229881

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The essays in this volume examine the cultural reception of modern science in late colonial India. They show how the first generation of Indian scientists responded to and creatively worked the theories and practices of modern science into their cultural idiom. The process of cultural legitimation of modern science is revealed through the debates surrounding these theories. The first set of essays deals with the encounter between the rationality of modern science and the exact sciences as portrayed by missionaries and British administrators, and so-called traditional ways of knowing. A second set of essays shifts the focus of attention to Calcutta between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when it virtually functioned as India s scientific capital. The essays examine the reception of theories of science such as that of biological evolution and the rejection of social Darwinism. Further, a new set of concerns of scientific and technical education and the installation of modern scientific and technological research systems acquired central importance by the end of the nineteenth century. These concerns dovetailed with the thinking of the emerging nationalist movement, and the essays that discuss the larger Indian picture indicate how the scientific community enlisted the political elite into its vision, and how this very elite drew upon the nascent scientific community in the project of decolonization. Dhruv Raina teaches at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. S. Irfan Habib is a scientist at the National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi.. . . a collection of essays which seeks to examine . . . the cultural offensive [of modernity] during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The Book Review

Author : Felicity Rash
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 46,62 MB
Release : 2020-07-30
Category : History
ISBN : 0429821026

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This volume compares and contrasts British and German colonialist discourses from a variety of angles: philosophical, political, social, economic, legal, and discourse-linguistic. British and German cooperation and competition are presented as complementary forces in the European colonial project from as early as the sixteenth century but especially after the foundation of the German Second Empire in 1871 – the era of the so-called 'Scramble for Africa'. The authors present the points of view not only of the colonizing nations, but also of former colonies, including Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Namibia, Tanzania, India, China, and the Pacific Islands. The title will prove invaluable for students and researchers working on British colonial history, German colonial history and post-colonial studies.

Author : Pratik Chakrabarti
Publisher : Orient Blackswan
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 29,39 MB
Release : 2004
Category : Science
ISBN : 9788178240787

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The Book Is About Western Science In A Olonial World. It Asks: How Do We Understand The Transfer And Absorption Of Scientific Knowledge Across Diverse Cultures, From One Society To Another? This Monograph Will Interest Scientists, Historians And Sociologists, As Well As Students Of Imperialism And The History Of Ideas.

Author : Raphaël Cheriau
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 18,30 MB
Release : 2021-05-03
Category : History
ISBN : 1000383016

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In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Zanzibar Sultanate became the focal point of European imperial and humanitarian policies, most notably Britain, France, and Germany. In fact, the Sultanate was one of the few places in the world where humanitarianism and imperialism met in the most obvious fashion. This crucial encounter was perfectly embodied by the iconic meeting of Dr. Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley in 1871. This book challenges the common presumption that those humanitarian concerns only served to conceal vile colonial interests. It brings the repression of the East African slave trade at sea and the expansion of empires into a new light in comparing French and British archives for the first time.

Author : Ashish Avikunthak
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 24,79 MB
Release : 2022-02-03
Category : History
ISBN : 1316512398

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An ethnography of archaeological practice in postcolonial India that reveals the bureaucratic culture in the making of knowledge about past.

Author : Asoke Nath Mitra
Publisher : Pearson Education India
Page : 662 pages
File Size : 18,22 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Science
ISBN : 9788131715796

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Contributed articles.

Author : Burra Gautam Sidharth
Publisher :
Page : 110 pages
File Size : 30,46 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Science
ISBN :

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India has had a very long tradition of path-breaking excellence in science and technology including mathematics, physics and astronomy. Even though the British rulers of India had no enthusiasm for Indians learning and doing science, the rising tide of nationalistic fervour in the first half of the twentieth century gave rise to, what has been called the golden age of Indian physics. There were some physicists, amongst others, who could be ranked with the best in the world. If we are to speak of the Indian Physics, then four names from that period immediately come up: Jadadeesh Chandra Bose who, before Marconi, actually demonstrated the propagation of radio waves. Some years later Sir CV Raman received the Nobel Prize for his celebrated Raman Effect. Then there were Meghnad Saha and Satyen Bose who made seminal contributions to physics. This new and important book offers a window into the backgrounds and achievements of these remarkable scientists.