Images and Contexts : The Historiography of Science and Modernity in India

This volume situates the historiography of science in India within a social theory of science. Focussing on several strands from the corpus of writing over the last 150 years, it examines the paradigm shift within science studies, the move away from a West-centric theory of science, and future trends and possibilities. The book explores ideas about the interplay between scientism and romanticism, internal and external accounts of science, creative tension between scientism and romanticism, model of colonial science and its relationship with the emergence of national science, and distortions of nationalist historiography. These ideas are analysed in the light of contemporary researches in the sociology of sciences, human sciences as well as from a global perspective. The last three decades of the twentieth century witnessed a critical turn towards the theory of history and an examination of the representation and historiography of the Orient. This volume situates the historiography of science in India within a social theory of science. It deals with paradigm shift within science studies, the move away from a West-centric theory of science, and future trends and possibilities. The book takes up several strands from the corpus of writing over the past 150 years and places them within the context of their times. It analyses ideas about the interplay between centre and periphery, internal and external accounts of science, creative tension between scientism and romanticism, model of colonial science and its relationship with the emergence of national science, and the distortions of nationalist historiography. While the essays do not in any sense constitute a comprehensive study in the historiography of sciences of India, they address certain relevant issues related to science and modernity in India. This book also explores the work of chemist-historians Prafulla Chandra Ray and Marcelin Berthelot