Science and technology studies in India

Science and technology studies (STS) in India 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 in science, technology and innovation policy studies.

Origin and development

The field has a long history in India that goes back to the late 1970s, with the works of Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi, Irfan Habib, J.P.S. Uberoi,{{cite book |last1=Uberoi |first1=J.P.S. |title=Science and Culture |date=1978 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New Delhi}}{{cite book |last1=Uberoi |first1=J.P.S. |url=https://archive.org/details/othermindofeurop0000uber |title=The other mind of Europe : Goethe as a Scientist |date=1984 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New Delhi |url-access=registration}} Ashis Nandy,{{cite book|last1=Nandy|first1=Ashis|title=Alternative Sciences: Creativity and Authenticity in Two Indian Scientists|date=1980|publisher=Allied Publishers|location=New Delhi}}{{cite book|last1=Nandy|first1=Ashis|title=Science, Hegemony and Violence: A Requiem for Modernity|date=1988|publisher=United Nations University|location=Tokyo}} Vandana Shiva,{{cite book|last1=Shiva|first1=Vandana|title=Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in India|date=1988|publisher=Kali for Women|location=New Delhi}} Claude Alvares{{cite book|last1=Alvares|first1=Claude|title=Homo faber : Technology and Culture in India, China and the West from 1500 to the Present Day|date=1980|publisher=Nijhoff|location=The Hague}}{{cite book|last1=Alvares|first1=Claude|title=Science, Development and Violence: The Revolt against Modernity|url=https://archive.org/details/sciencedevelopme0000alva|url-access=registration|date=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New Delhi}} and Shiv Visvanathan{{cite book|last1=Visvanathan|first1=Shiv|title=Organizing for Science: The Making of an Industrial Research Laboratory|date=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New Delhi}}{{cite book|last1=Visvanathan|first1=Shiv|title=A Carnival for Science: Essays on Science, Technology and Development|date=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New Delhi}}

However, there is a first generation of scholars from the 1970s who looked at science and technology (and not from the purview of post-Kuhnian STS) such as Dharampal,{{cite book|last1=Dharampal|title=Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century|date=1971|publisher=Impex India|location=Delhi}} Abdur Rahman,{{cite book|last1=Rahman|first1=Abdur|title=Trimurti: Science, Technology and Society: A Collection of Essays|date=1972|publisher=People's Publishing House|location=Delhi}}{{cite book|last1=Chattopadhyay|first1=Debiprasad|title=History of Science in India, Vol. 1 & 2|date=1982|publisher=Editorial Enterprises|location=New Delhi}} and SN Sen.{{cite journal|last1=Sen|first1=S.N.|title=Changing Perspectives in the History of Sciences|journal=Science and Culture|date=1966|volume=31|issue=5|pages=214–219}} Works of J.D. Bernal and Joseph Needham had a strong influence on the Indian STS in its formative years.{{cite book|last1=Raina|first1=Dhruv|title=Needham's Indian Network: The Search for a Home for the History of Science in India (1950-1970)|date=2015|publisher=Yoda Press|location=New Delhi}}

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: the Center for Interaction of Science and Society, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (estd. 1970), and the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi (estd. 1980). However, the Center for Interaction of Science and Society was closed in the late 1970s by the state, finding it too critical of the nuclear energy/weaponry policies of the Indira Gandhi regime;{{Cite web|url=http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/96ce/7_Sharma.pdf|title=Confronting the nuclear power structure in India|last=Sharma|first=Dhirendra|access-date=2016-04-17}} in 1996 it reopened as the Centre for Studies in Science Policy (CSSP)] at Jawaharlal Nehru University.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_080_12_1479_1480_0.pdf|title=News: Revival of the Centre for Studies in Science Policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi|last=Sen|first=Nirupa|date=25 June 2001|journal=Current Science|volume=80|number=12|pages=1479–1480|access-date=2019-06-27}}

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, Robert S. Anderson, Deepak Kumar,{{cite book|last1=Kumar|first1=Deepak|title=Science and the Raj|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New Delhi}} Dhruv Raina,{{cite book|last1=Raina|first1=Dhruv|title=Images and Contexts: The Historiography of Science and Modernity in India|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New Delhi}} S. Irfan Habib,{{cite book|last1=Raina|first1=Dhruv|last2=Habib|first2=S. Irfan|title=Situating the History of Science: Dialogues with Joseph Needham|date=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New Delhi}}{{cite book|last1=Raina|first1=Dhruv|last2=Habib|first2=S. Irfan|title=Domesticating Modern Science: A Social History of Science and Culture in Colonial India|date=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New Delhi}} Itty Abraham,{{cite book|last1=Abraham|first1=Itty|title=The Making of Indian Atomic Bomb: Science, Security and the Postcolonial State'|date=1998|publisher=Zed Books|location=London}} Gyan Prakash.{{cite book|last1=Prakash|first1=Gyan|title=Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India|url=https://archive.org/details/anotherreasonsci0000prak|url-access=registration|date=1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton}} and Zaheer Baber.Zaheer Baber 1996. The Science of Empire. State University of New York Press, New york. Works of sociologists like Harish Naraindas,{{cite book|last=Naraindas|first=Harish|title="Poisons, putrescence and the weather: A genealogy of the advent of Tropical Medicine", in Contributions to Indian Sociology|date=1996|publisher=Sage|location=New Delhi}} VV Krishna,{{cite book|last1=Krishna|first1=Venni Venkita|title=S.S.Bhatnagar on Science, Technology and Development, 1938-54|date=1994|publisher=Wiley Eastern Ltd|location=New Delhi}}{{cite book|last1=Krishna|first1=Venni Venkita|last2=Shinn|first2=Terry|last3=Spaapen|first3=J.|title=Science and Technology in a Developing World (Sociology of Sciences Year Book 1995)|date=1995|publisher=Kluwer Publications|location=The Netherlands}} V. Sujatha, E.Haribabu and Binaykumar Patnaik also are significant to the development of the field, along with the philosophical enquiries of Prajit K. Basu and Sunder Sarukkai.{{cite book|last1=Sarukkai|first1=Sunder|title=Translating the World: Science and Language|date=2002|publisher=University Press of America|location=Lanham}} Extensive research carried out by Rajeswari S Raina[http://snu.edu.in/humanitiessocialsciences/rajeswari_s_raina_profile.aspx Rajeseswari S. Raina] on agricultural knowledge systems and developmental practices, Neelam Kumar's work on women and science and Pranav Desai's work on systems of innovations also must be noted.

File:NISTADS team.jpeg, Deepak Kumar, Dhruv Raina, and V.V. Krishna]]

In the wake of the 'Sokal Affair' in the western academia, a similar debate was triggered in India, mainly in the pages of Economic and Political Weekly, where Alan Sokal himself participated. This controversy is popularly known as the 'Indian science wars'.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-science-wars-in-india|title=The Science Wars in India|website=Dissent Magazine|access-date=2019-10-07}} The debate resumed in the wake of the publication of a renowned philosopher of science, Meera Nanda's books on the cultural relativist position on Postcolonial Studies of Science. Her defense of science and the Enlightenment values played a central role in sustaining the Indian Science War in the 2000s. Following the publication of her book, Prophets Facing Backward (2004),{{cite book|last1=Nanda|first1=Meera|title=Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and the Hindu Nationalism in India.|date=2004|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick|isbn=978-81-7824-090-9}} the journal Social Epistemology published a special issue that discussed the responses of STS scholars like Sandra Harding to the arguments in Nanda's book and counter-rebuts from Nanda.{{Cite news|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tsep20/19/1|title=Social Epistemology|date=2005|work=Taylor & Francis|access-date=2019-10-07|issue=1|volume=19|language=en}}

Scholars such as Abha Sur,Abha Sur. 2011. Dispersed Radiance: Caste, Gender, and Modern Science in India. Navayana, New Delhi Amit Prasad,Amit Prasad. 2014. Imperial Technoscience: Transnational Histories of MRI in the United States, Britain, and India. MIT Press. Banu Subramaniam, Esha Shah,Esha Shah, 2017. Who is the Science Subject?: Affective History of the Gene. Routledge, New York. Gita Chadha, Indira ChowdhuryIndira Chowdhury 2015. Growing the Tree of Science: Homi Bhabha and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Oxford University press, New Delhi Jahnavi Phalkey,Jahnavi Phalkey 2013. Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth Century India. Sonepat, Permamnet Black Kaushik Sunder Rajan,Kaushik Sunder Rajan. 2006. Biocapital: The Constitution of Post-Genomic Life. Duke University Press. Kavitha Philip,Kavita Philip. 2003. Civilizing Natures: Race, Resources and Modernity in Colonial South India, Rutgers University Press; Orient Longman (Asia/UK edition) 2004 John Bosco Lourdusamy, Senthil Babu, Rohan D'Souza, Saradindu Bhaduri, Madhav Govind and Pratik ChakrabartiPratik Chakrabarti. 2004. Western Science in Modern India: Metropolitan Methods, Colonial Practices. Permanent Black, Sonepat. represent the next generation of scholars in the field who became active in the 2000s.

There is also a new generation of scholars who are actively involved in developing the field in the second decade of the millennium, ensuring that Indian STS has a bright future ahead.See for example, the works of Aparajit Ramnath, Aalok Khandekar, Biswanath Dash, Mathew John, Naveen K. Thayyil, Nupur Chowdhury, Pankaj Sekhsaria, Renny Thomas, Richa Kumar, [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/contested-knowledge-9780199469123?cc=gb&lang=en Shiju Sam Varughese], Suvobrata Sarkar, Kunal Sinha, Parvathi K Iyer, and Hemant Kumar.

Institutes and departments

Several departments of science policy studies were launched in the new millennium with a strong foundation in STS. The Centre for Interaction of Science and Society at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, which closed in the 1970s, reopened under a new name, Centre for Studies in Science Policy (CSSP), in 1996.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_080_12_1479_1480_0.pdf|title=News: Revival of the Centre for Studies in Science Policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi|last=Sen|first=Nirupa|date=25 June 2001|journal=Current Science|volume=80|number=12|pages=1479–1480|access-date=2019-06-27}} The Center for Knowledge Culture and Innovation Studies (CKCIS) at the University of Hyderabad opened in 2006,{{Citation needed|reason=We need a source that verifies this date|date=June 2019}} and the Centre for Studies in Science, Technology & Innovation Policy at the Central University of Gujarat opened in 2009.{{cite web |title=Centre for Studies in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (CSSTIP) |url=http://www.cug.ac.in/academic_prog/sss/csstip/csstip.php |access-date=31 December 2020}} The Humanities of Social Sciences departments of many of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) have several faculty members trained in the field and offers courses in STS, and the number of scholars specializing on STS is steadily increasing in the country.{{Citation needed|reason=We need a source that verifies all the claims in this sentence|date=June 2019}}

Academic programs

PhD Programme in Science Policy Studies, Centre for Studies in Science Policy (CSSP), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi[http://www.jnu.ac.in/SSS/CSSP/pos.htm MPhil-PhD Programme in Science Policy Studies, Center for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi]
PhD Programme in Studies in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar[http://www.cug.ac.in/academic_programmes/c_sss_stip.php MPhil-PhD Programme in Studies in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar]
PhD Programme in Science, Technology and Society Studies, Centre for Knowledge Culture and Innovation Studies, University of Hyderabad[http://www.uohyd.ac.in/# University of Hyderabad]
PhD Programme in Economics (Economics of Innovation), School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Indore{{Cite web |title=Humanities and Social Sciences {{!}} IIT Indore |url=https://hss.iiti.ac.in/main/research_area |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=hss.iiti.ac.in}}
PhD Programme in Education (History of science and technical education), Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi[http://www.jnu.ac.in/SSS/ZHCES/Programme.asp MPhil-PhD Programme in Education (History of science and technical education), Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi]
PhD programme in Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi[http://hss.iitd.ac.in/ PhD programme in Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi]
PhD Programme, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Bhopal [https://hss.iiserb.ac.in/]

References

{{Reflist}}{{Cite web |title=Humanities and Social Sciences {{!}} IIT Indore |url=https://hss.iiti.ac.in/main/research_area |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=hss.iiti.ac.in}}

External links

[http://stswiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page STS Wiki Project]
[http://www.sagepub.in/journals/Journal200804 Science, Technology and Society Journal]
[http://www.iscos.org/ijsc.htm Indian Journal of Science Communication]
[http://insaindia.org/journals/ijhs.php Indian Journal of History of Science]
[http://www.kicsforum.net/ Knowledge in Civil Society forum]
[http://www.physics.nyu.edu/sokal/pseudoscience_rev.pdf A critique of postcolonial science studies] by Alan Sokal

Category:Science and technology in India

Category:Science education in India