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Science and technology studies in India

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Science and Technology Studies (STS) aka Science, Technology and Society Studies is a fast growing field of academic inquiry in India since the 1980s. STS has developed in the country from the science movements of the 1970s and 1980s as well as the scholarly criticism of science and technology policies of the Indian state. Now the field is established with at least five generations of scholars and several departments and institutes specialising on science policy studies/STS.

Origin and Development

The field has a long history in India that goes back to the late 1970s, with the works of J.P.S. Uberoi,[1][2] Ashis Nandy,[3][4] Vandana Shiva,[5] Claude Alvares[6][7] and Shiv Visvanathan.[8][9] However, there is a first generation of scholars from the 1970s who looked at science and technology generally from a Marxist perspective (and not from the purview of post-Kuhnian STS) such as Dharampal,[10] Abdur Rahman,.[11][12][13] Debiprasad Chattopadhyay,[14][15] and SN Sen.[16] Works of J.D. Bernal and Joseph Needham had a strong influence on the Indian STS in its formative years.[17] The New Social Movements of the 1970s and 1980s in India contributed immensely to the emergence of the discipline, as these movements and activists groups influenced by Marxist, Gandhian and deep ecological perspectives could not avoid engaging with modern science and the modernization project in the post-colony. An important turning point was the creation of two institutions to study the social relations of science: Center for Interaction of Science and Society, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (estd. 1970), and the National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi (estd: 1980). However, the Center for Interaction of Science and Society was closed down in the late 1970s by the state, finding it too critical of the nuclear energy/weaponry policies of the Indira Gandhi regime.[18] In the 1990s, the field became vibrant with the intervention of a group of social historians of science inspired by postcolonial studies such as David Arnold, Deepak Kumar,[19] Dhruv Raina,[20] S. Irfan Habib,[21][22] Itty Abraham,[23] Gyan Prakash.[24] and Zaheer Baber.[25] Works of sociologists like VV Krishna,[26][27] E. Haribabu and Binaykumar Patnaik[28] also are significant to the development of the field, along with the philosophical enquiries of Prajit K. Basu and Sunder Sarukkai.[29] Extensive research carried out by Rajeseswari S. Raina on agricultural knowledge systems and developmental practices, and Neelam Kumar's work on women and science also must be noted.

S. Irfan habib, Deepak Kumar, Dhruv Raina, and V.V. Krishna

Scholars such as Abha Sur,[30] Amit Prasad,[31] Esha Shah,[32] Gita Chaddha, Indira Chowdhury[33] Jahnavi Phalkey,[34], Kaushik Sunder Rajan,[35] Kavitha Philip,[36] and Pratik Chakrabarti[37] represent the next generation of scholars in the field who became active in the 2000s. There is also a new generation of scholars who is actively involved in developing the field in the second decade of the millennium, ensuring that Indian STS has a bright future ahead.[38]

Institutes and Departments

Several departments of science policy studies were launched in the new millennium with a strong foundation in STS such as Center for Knowledge Culture and Innovation Studies (CKCIS), University of Hyderabad (2006), and Centre for Studies in Science, Technology & Innovation Policy, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar (2009). The revamping of the Centre for Interaction of Science and Society at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, under the new name of Centre for Studies in Science Policy (CSSP) in the year 2000 was the first among this.[39] The Humanities of Social Sciences Departments of many of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) have several faculty members trained in the field, and the number of scholars specializing on STS is steadily increasing in the country.

Academic Programs

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Uberoi, J.P.S. (1978). Science and Culture. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  2. ^ Uberoi, J.P.S. (1984). The other mind of Europe : Goethe as a Scientist. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ Nandy, Ashis (1980). Alternative Sciences: Creativity and Authenticity in Two Indian Scientists. New Delhi: Allied Publishers.
  4. ^ Nandy, Ashis (1988). Science, Hegemony and Violence: A Requiem for Modernity. Tokyo: United Nations University.
  5. ^ Shiva, Vandana (1988). Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in India. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
  6. ^ Alvares, Claude (1980). Homo faber : Technology and Culture in India, China and the West from 1500 to the Present Day. The Hague: Nijhoff.
  7. ^ Alvares, Claude (1992). Science, Development and Violence: The Revolt against Modernity. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  8. ^ Visvanathan, Shiv (1985). Organizing for Science: The Making of an Industrial Research Laboratory. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  9. ^ Visvanathan, Shiv (1985). A Carnival for Science: Essays on Science, Technology and Development. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  10. ^ Dharampal (1971). Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century. Delhi: Impex India.
  11. ^ Rahman, Abdur (1972). Trimurti: Science, Technology and Society: A Collection of Essays. Delhi: People's Publishing House.
  12. ^ Rahman, Abdur (1977). Triveni: Science, Democracy and Socialism. Simla: Indian Institue of Advanced Studies.
  13. ^ Rahman, Abdur (1977). Science Polcy Studies in India: A Status Report. New Delhi: CSIR.
  14. ^ Chattopadhyay, Debiprasad (1977). Science and Society in Ancient India. Calcutta: Research India Publications.
  15. ^ Chattopadhyay, Debiprasad (1982). History of Science in India, Vol. 1 & 2. New Delhi: Editorial Enterprises.
  16. ^ Sen, S.N. (1966). "Changing Perspectives in the History of Sciences". Science and Culture. 31 (5): 214–219.
  17. ^ Raina, Dhruv (2015). Needham's Indian Network: The Search for a Home for the History of Science in India (1950-1970). New Delhi: Yoda Press.
  18. ^ Sharma, Dhirendra. "Confronting the nuclear power structure in India" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  19. ^ Kumar, Deepak (1995). Science and the Raj:. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  20. ^ Raina, Dhruv (2003). Images and Contexts: The Historiography of Science and Modernity in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  21. ^ Raina, Dhruv; Habib, S. Irfan (1999). Situating the History of Science: Dialogues with Joseph Needham. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  22. ^ Raina, Dhruv; Habib, S. Irfan (2004). Domesticating Modern Science: A Social History of Science and Culture in Colonial India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  23. ^ Abraham, Itty (1998). The Making of Indian Atomic Bomb: Science, Security and the Postcolonial State'. London: Zed Books.
  24. ^ Prakash, Gyan (1999). Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  25. ^ Zaheer Baber 1996. The Science of Empire. State University of New York Press, New york.
  26. ^ Krishna, Venni Venkita (1994). S.S.Bhatnagar on Science, Technology and Development, 1938-54. New Delhi: Wiley Eastern Ltd.
  27. ^ Krishna, Venni Venkita; Shinn, Terry; Spaapen, J. (1995). Science and Technology in a Developing World (Sociology of Sciences Year Book 1995),. The Netherlands: Kluwer Publications.
  28. ^ Patnaik, Binaykumar (1992). The Scientific Temper: An Empirical Study. New Delhi: Rawat Publications.
  29. ^ Sarukkai, Sunder (2002). Translating the World: Science and Language. Lanham: University Press of America.
  30. ^ Abha Sur. 2011. Dispersed Radiance: Caste, Gender, and Modern Science in India. Navayana, New Delhi
  31. ^ Amit Prasad. 2014. Imperial Technoscience: Transnational Histories of MRI in the United States, Britain, and India. MIT Press.
  32. ^ Esha Shah, 2017. Who is the Science Subject?: Affective History of the Gene. Routledge, New York.
  33. ^ Indira Chowdhury 2015. Growing the Tree of Science: Homi Bhabha and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Oxford University press, New Delhi
  34. ^ Jahnavi Phalkey 2013. Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth Century India. Sonepat, Permamnet Black
  35. ^ Kaushik Sunder Rajan. 2006. Biocapital: The Constitution of Post-Genomic Life. Duke University Press.
  36. ^ Kavita Philip. 2003. Civilizing Natures: Race, Resources and Modernity in Colonial South India, Rutgers University Press; Orient Longman (Asia/UK edition) 2004
  37. ^ Pratik Chakrabarti. 2004. Western Science in Modern India: Metropolitan Methods, Colonial Practices. Permanent Black, Sonepat.
  38. ^ See for example, the works of Aparajit Ramnath, Biswanath Dash, Girija K.P., Naveen K. Thayyil, Nupur Chowdhury, Pankaj Sekhsaria, Richa Kumar, Shiju Sam Varughese, Sunandan N., Sunita Raina, and Suvobrata Sarkar.
  39. ^ Sen, Nirupa (25 June 2001). "Revival of the Center for Studies in Science Policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi" (PDF). Current Science. Retrieved 2016-04-17.

For Further Reading

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