Science was used as aphysical tool to subjugate colonies.
Science, in addition, served as legitimizer of colonial rule.
Development of science and prosperity due to it transformed Europe.
Colonial use of science impacted English-educated Indians.
1. Colonial use of science
and its impact on India
1
Rajesh Kochhar
rkochhar2000@yahoo.com
NIScPR, New Delhi
29 Nov. 2021
2. 2
Friends
It is a matter of great pleasure and
honour for me to be participating in
the Inaugural Session of the National
Conference on
“Indian Independence Movement & the
Role of Science”.
3. 3
• Science was used as aphysical tool to subjugate
colonies.
• Science, in addition, served as legitimizer of colonial
rule.
• Development of science and prosperity due to it
transformed Europe.
• Colonial use of science impacted English-educated
Indians.
4. 4
• England could not have established a vast Indian Empire,
administered it, and maintained it without help from science.
Just as the British needed science, they needed help from a
section of Indians also. This brought Indians into contact
with modern science.
• Science provided the British with not only physical means
of control but also an ideology of superioritism.
• India’s own attitude towards science has been largely
fashioned by the colonial experience.
5. 5
• When we were in school, we were given the
impression that the British soldiers, armed with
science and technology, arrived in India and
captured it. This is not true.
• When East India Company was established in
1600, telescope had not yet made its
appearance. By a coincidence, invention of
telescope and the arrival of first English ship off
Indian coast took place in the same year (1608).
6. 6
This numerology brings home the important point
that modern S&T grew hand in hand with oceanic
voyages, overseas trade, and colonial expansion.
Huge profits were waiting to be made if merchant
ships could reach the destination and safely sail back
to home port,
The first priority was making navigation scientific
and reducing the death rate on long journeys due to
scurvy ( Vitamin C deficiency).
7. Navigation
7
• A major problem in high seas was determination
of longitude. Best scientific brains of the time
addressed the problem. Observatories were built
at Paris and London.
• Best brains at all times worked to solve
problems facing merchants and coloniaists.
• At the instrumentation level sextant and
chronometer (sea clock) were invented. A
carpenter, John Harrison, who spent 30 years
perfecting his clocks totally ignored Newton’s
opinion on the subject
8. Scurvy
8
There were more deaths due to scurvy than
shipwreck. Deaths were higher in Navy than
in merchant ships. This is because Company
captains guided by their own practical
experience, prescribed fresh fruits and
vegetables ,while Navy prescriptions were
based on theoretical experts from universities
and Royal Society and were totally
ineffective.
FINALLY, the Navy did listen to the lowly
sailor.
9. • Once death rate on long voyages
drastically declined, young men from
better backgrounds started working in
the colonies. Caliber of available
manpower improved with the result that
colonial expansion could take place as
also administration of distant territories.
9
10. • Oceanic voyages transformed not only
Europe’s economy but mindset also.
Prosperity did not depend on the grace
of God or goodwill of the King, but on
the skills of merchants, sailors,
carpenters, and mechanics .
• Wealth lay not in the past but into the
future; not in archives, but in the open;
not in ancient scholarship but in new
exploration and experimentation. 10
11. • Weakening of the authority of the Bible
and classical texts was a development
of profound significance.
• -
• Once Europeans arrived in distant
lands, they took interest in natural
history. Medical botany, commercial
botany, and scientific botany went hand
in hand.
11
12. Merchant to ruler
12
• English traders became rulers of Bengal and
Bihar in 1757, and took over the whole
country in the next 60 years. The new rulers
needed to utilize science in an
institutionalized and systematic manner.
Their priorities can be seen from their early
initiatives.
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• 1767 Bengal. Surveyor General
• 1778 Madras. Naturalist
• 1784 Asiatick Society, Calcutta
• 1787 Astronomical Observatory, Madras
• 1787 Calcutta. Botanical Garden, Sibpur
1800 Trigonometrical Survey of Peninsular
India
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• Ironically, when we celebrate anniversaries
of scientific institutions like the Survey of
India, Geological Survey, telegraph, or
railways, we are also unwittingly
celebrating the step-wise entrenchment of
the British colonial power in India.
15. 15
• Whenever colonial interests pointed their
finger towards a particular field science ,
attention was paid to it. All colonial
scientific activity was driven by latitude,
ecological novelty, and extent of land mass.
Geography, geodesy, geology, astronomy,
meteorology, natural history — all
benefited from colonial interest.
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• When science is harnessed, it gets enriched.
For example, steam technology required
coal, and quest for coal led to the geology
of India. In the process of Empire building,
India was added as a field station to the
edifice of world science. Colonial scientific
initiatives and their impact are summarized
in three terms : Mount Everest; hypothetical
supercontinent, Gondwana; and Russel’s
Viper.
17. Science as PR
17
• Science served a useful PR purpose.
British India distributed plant
specimens (as also Sanskrit
manuscripts) to Western libraries and
museums. It carried out geomagnetic
studies, and Trans-Himalayan survey,
and made arrangements for solar
studies. Such support diverted world
attention from the colonialists’
otherwise unsavoury conduct.
18. Peripheral Indian
18
• Indians were assigned trivial or peripheral
roles in the colonial science machinery.At
Sibpur botanical garden plant specimens
were kept in cabinets whose legs were
placed in water troughs to prevent ants
from reaching the specimens. A man was
hired to keep the troughs filled.
• There were a large number of deaths due to
snake bite. Research was carried oout on
snake poison. An India was employed to
carry out the rather dangerous task of
extracting poison from cobras.
19. Whatever skills were available, the Company
utilized them. India had a tradition of painters
working under the auspices of kings or
temples. They were hired to paint natural
history specimens. This created what is
known as the Company School.
19
20. Europeans were hostile to creating lab or
industrial facilities in India. European
industrial developments were injurious to
traditional Indian manufacture. Europeans
were interested in raw materials from India
but were against encouraging any
manufacture in the country.
20
21. • The 18th century Dutch administrator, Van
Rheede, set up a laboratory at his residence in
Cochin, where a chemist, Paulus Meysner,
distilled oil from roots of wild cinnamon which
was used with favourable results in the Dutch
hospital in Cochin. His government however
disapproved of the laboratory on the ground
21
22. • that “the knowledge of the distillation of
oil from cinnamon would be detrimental
to the market in Europe if results of the
research became generally known in
Europe”. The laboratory was finally
closed in 1678. Even when an
enlightened colonial administrator took
an initiative for development he was not
permitted to proceed by his superiors. 22
23. • In 1811, expedition for the capture of
Java was delayed because of want of
cartridge paper. Wilson Jones, known as
Guru Jones, rose to the occasion and set
up a small paper manufactory, from
which he furnished all the paper that
was required. The government
however had no interest in promoting
manufacturing capabilities in India, and
Jones’ factory was closed ‘as soon as
the object of the expedition was
accomplished’.
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24. Western science & Non-West
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• Control of malaria is counted among the blessings of
modern science. But malaria was a big ally of the
Africans; it prevented Europeans from penetrating
into Inner Africa. Cinchona bark was smuggled into
Europe from Peru and Bolivia. The tree was
domesticated in Java with the result that Quinine
became available in bulk. European soldiers were
given large doses of quinine and sent into the interior
where they took over the land. Africans lost their
independence, but still had malaria.
25. Technology in colonial service
25
• Steam engine robbed Burma of its independence;
• partial steam navigation deprived Egypt of its freedom;
• telegraph quashed Indian 1857 Rebellion.
26. Burma
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• In 1820s, small steam engines were brought into India, and
fitted into boats which in turn were fitted with guns. Sailing
ships can only move down with the flow but a steam boat can
be taken upstream. These steam gun boats were taken from
Indian East Coast to the mouth of Irawadi, and propelled
upstream. >
27. • Earlier when the British tried to enter
Burma from North East India through
the forests, they were felled. Now with
steam gun boats, British soldiers were
able to conquer Burma.
27
28. Aden & Egypt
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• Early steam engines were still very
inefficient, they could not power a ship via
Cape of Good Hope. Accordingly, an over-
land route through Egypt was tried. Ships
went from Bombay up to Red Sea.
Passengers crossed Sinai desert, and again
boarded the ship in the Mediterranean.
•
29. • Since Aden was needed a coal station, it
was captured. Later, Suez Canal was
dug to provide continuous water
passage. To facilitate this, Egypt was
physically taken over.
29
30. Telegraph and 1857 Rebellion
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• For communications within India,
telegraph was introduced in early 1850s.
When Rebels reached Delhi in May 1857,
outbreak of Rebellion was telegraphically
conveyed from Delhi to Umballa, and
from there to Punjab, where soldiers were
disarmed.. If the Armed Rebellion had
before introduction of telegraph , it might
have succeeded.
31. Industrial and Chemical Revolutions
31
• A major export item from India was the
finely woven naturally dyed cottons.
England set out to replace Indian weaver
with machine, and ushered in industrial
revolution. Replacement of natural dyes
with man-made ones led to the
establishment of chemical industry. These
India-inspired technological developments
severely damaged Indian economy
32. Europe in learning mode
32
• The 18th century Europe was keen to learn about Indian and
Chinese empirical technologies, and incorporate them into
its own mainstream. Three well-known examples are: wootz
(carbon steel); zinc metallurgy; and Mysore rocketry.
Inverse distillation process for extracting metallic zinc,
invented in Aravali Hills 2000 years ago, was patented in
England.
• Wootz was given to Michael Faraday to analyse. His work
led to the new field of alloy steel.
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Mysore rockets caused temporary setback to British forces,
but in the long run, Britain benefited. It critically studied
the Mysore rocket shells, developed Congreve rockets, and
used them against their enemies in India and Europe.
34. Arrogant Europe
34
By the 1830s England had become an
industrial and colonial power. It is at this
stage that it developed racial and cultural
arrogance. It decided to forget the Eastern
antecedents of many of its discoveries.
Europe now claimed that since it was the
author of the powerful knowledge system of
modern S&T, it was superior to other nations
and races and therefore entitled to rule over
them and civilize them.
35. Colonial legitimacy
35
Physical conquest of India was relatively a
simple affair. But, the British needed
legitimacy also, for use in India as well as
England.
The British claimed legitimacy for their
rule over India by projecting itself as a
patron of ancient India and through the
Aryan Race Theory.According to this
theory upper-caste Hindus (to the exclusion
of lower castes and Muslims) were
ethnically the same as Europeans; both
were Aryans.
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• British thesis went like this: Indo-Aryans had reached
a high level of civilization when Europeans were in
a state of barbarism. Hindus had had their day in the
past ; now it was the turn of their European brethren.
India was given excessive credit for speculation and
metaphysics, but its past scientific achievements were
belittled, be it astronomy or medical chemistry.
• Attempts were made to convince that modern uses of
science were not for them. This had made Indians
ever hungry for Western recognition.
37. Western India vs Bengal
37
• Bombay and to a smaller extent Gujarat
valued creation of industrial wealth.
Textile industry in Western India owed
nothing to the British. The capital was
local and so was the initiative.
• Bengal and rest of the country thought
and acted differently. They owed nothing
to science and had no intention of
supporting entrepreneurs.
38. . P C Ray and T K Gajjar were
contemporaries Both were chemists. Ray
set up Bengal Chemical, while Gahhar
helped his students establish Alembic. Ray
tried to raise crowd funding, while
Alembic moved out to Baroda and
enlisted support from the Gaikwad. The
Tatas established TISCO near coal and
ore.
• .
38
39. First World War
39
. First World War came as a boon to Indian industry.
Asia was cut off from Europe, and the British had
to meet war requirements. Bengal Chemical,
Alembic, and TISCO all prospered thanks to the
War. Alembic was the first one to manufacture
IMPL in India !
• .
40. 40
• J C Bose and P C Ray were the world’s first non-White
scientists. C V Raman’s Nobel Physics was the first Prize to
go out of the West. Normally, any activity begins modestly,
reaches a plateau, and slowly declines and stabilizes. India
started at the top and had nowhere to go accept downwards.
• India enjoyed certain advantages in the early decades of
20th century, which disappeared in course of time.
Infrastructural requirements were modest and available at
college lab level. Libraries were well equipped, and a
research problem was in continuation of MSc level studies.
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• As times passed, Indian advantages disappeared. Science
became increasingly a child of high technology. India
became unable to meet its infrastructural requirements.
While the distance between MSc and research increased, our
educational standards went down. JC Bose said in 1920 that
Presidency College Calcutta was among the best equipped in
the world. But our libraries and labs became woefully
inadequate.
• At one time teaching was the best option outside IAS and
related examinations. But, our breed of knowledgeable and
inspiring teachers at all levels moved towards extinction.
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• Moral of the Indian science story is this:
• It is not possible sustain science as a purely culturally
activity for long .
• To sustain scientific activity, a symbiotic relationship needs
to be built between production of wealth and science. Main
aim of science is to improve quality of life and produce
wealth; goal of this wealth is to support science.
• For historical reasons, we have been guided not by what the
British did in Britain but what they did to India.
