SCIENCE AND EMPIRE: Essays in Indian Context (1700-1947)

Description

The book is a collection of fourteen well-researched papers focussing attention on how science and technology were used for imperial purposes, the close links between the two, and what response it elicited from the Indians. These papers help not only in placing scientific and technological works in British India within colonial parameters but also in understanding the mechanism of imperialism itself.

“The seminar on Science and Empire, perhaps the first of its kind in the scientific world, produced a kind of ‘Delhi Declaration’ in its consensus, asking for re-examination of the role of the West in the scientific and technological backwardness of nations which in our world have been sadly divided into the rich and the poor.” – The Times of India

For more than four decades Deepak Kumar has researched, published and taught on different aspects of the, science and its linkages with governance of colonial India. He began his teaching career at Kurukshetra University in 1976, served as Scientist at the CSIR-NISTADS, taught at several universities within India and abroad, and retired as Professor of History of Science and Education from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2017. Along with seven co-edited books on history of technology, medicine, agriculture, environment, and education, he is also known for his Science and the Raj: A Study of British India (2006); The Trishanku Nation: Memory, Self and Society in Contemporary India (2016); Aatam Khabar: Sanskrit, Samaj aur hum (2022); Adhunik Bharat mein Vigyan aur Samaj (2025); and Ghum Chakhya Ghum: Ek Safarnama (2026).