Revisiting Social Theory and History of Science in Early Modern South Asia and Colonial India

• Published in: Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident Vol. 36; no. 36; pp. 191 - 210
• Main Author: Raina, Dhruv
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Presses universitaires de Vincennes 09.10.2014; Presses Universitaires de Vincennes
• Subjects: Astronomy; Colonialism; History instruction; History of science; India; Indian culture; Indian literature; Mathematical knowledge; Modern science; Postcolonial literature; Regards extérieurs; Social history; Social theories; Social theory; South Asia
• ISSN: 0754-5010; 2108-7105
• DOI: 10.4000/extremeorient.315

Historiographies of the sciences in Asia have undergone a major revision over the last three decades—inspired by changes in the social theory of science, a robust contextualism, and growing scholarship in local histories. These revisions have equally been an outcome of the mutual shaping of social theory and historical practices. Responding to the role of “itinerants,” be they scholars, missionaries, officials, or scientists in the circulation and transmission of knowledge in East Asia, the present essay synchronously moves to the geographical region of South Asia and attempts to draw the landscape of the circulation of knowledge in early modern and colonial South Asia. In the second part, it briefly instantiates the process of translation of modern mathematical knowledge in colonial India, illustrating the different strategies of legitimation of new knowledge in varied national and cultural contexts.