Science and technology studies Science and technology studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary field that examines the creation, development, and consequences of science and technology in their historical, cultural, and social contexts. History Like most interdisciplinary fie ...

(STS) in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

is a fast growing field of academic inquiry in

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 India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

. 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 J.P.S. Uberoi,

Ashis Nandy Ashis Nandy ( bn, আশিস নন্দী; born 13 May 1937) is an Indian political psychologist, social theorist, and critic. A trained clinical psychologist, Nandy has provided theoretical critiques of European colonialism, developme ...

Vandana Shiva Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Gandh ...

, Claude Alvares and

Shiv Visvanathan Shiv Visvanathan is an Indian academic best known for his contributions to developing the field of science and technology studies (STS), and for the concept of cognitive justice, a term he coined. He is currently Professor at O P Jindal Global Un ...

. 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 Dharampal ( hi, धरमपाल) (19 February 1922 – 24 October 2006) was an Indian thinker. He authored ''The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century'' (1983), ''Indian Science and Technology in the Eight ...

, Abdur Rahman, and SN Sen. Works of

J.D. Bernal John Desmond Bernal (; 10 May 1901 – 15 September 1971) was an Irish scientist who pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography in molecular biology. He published extensively on the history of science. In addition, Bernal wrote popular book ...

and

Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, in ...

had a strong influence on the Indian STS in its formative years. 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 Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

regime; in 1996 it reopened as the Centre for Studies in Science Policy (CSSP)] at Jawaharlal Nehru University. 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 David Arnold (born 23 January 1962) is a British film composer whose credits include scoring five James Bond films, as well as ''Stargate'' (1994), '' Independence Day'' (1996), ''Godzilla'' (1998) and the television series ''Little Britain'' ...

, Robert S. Anderson, Deepak Kumar,

Dhruv Raina Dhruv Raina is a philosopher and historian of science from India. He is best known for his work on the domestication of science in colonial India, transnational intellectual networks of science and historiographies of science. He was Professor of ...

, S. Irfan Habib, Itty Abraham,

Gyan Prakash Gyan Prakash is a historian of modern India and the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. Prakash is a member of the Subaltern Studies collective. Prakash received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the Univers ...

. and Zaheer Baber. Works of sociologists like Harish Naraindas, VV Krishna, 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. Extensive research carried out by 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. In the wake of the '

Sokal Affair The Sokal affair, also called the Sokal hoax, was a demonstrative scholarly publishing sting, scholarly hoax performed by Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University and University College London. In 1996, Sokal submitted an article t ...

' in the western academia, a similar debate was triggered in India, mainly in the pages of ''Economic and Political Weekly'', where

Alan Sokal Alan David Sokal (; born January 24, 1955) is an American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor emeritus of physics at New York University. He works in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. He is a critic of postmo ...

himself participated. This controversy is popularly known as the 'Indian science wars'. The debate resumed in the wake of the publication of a renowned philosopher of science,

Meera Nanda Meera Nanda (born 1954) is an Indian writer and historian of science, who has authored several works critiquing the influence of Hindutva, postcolonialism and postmodernism on science, and the flourishing of pseudoscience and vedic science. Sh ...

's books on the cultural relativist position on Postcolonial Studies of Science. Her defense of science and

the Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

values played a central role in sustaining the Indian Science War in the 2000s. Following the publication of her book, ''Prophets Facing Backward'' (2004), the journal ''

Social Epistemology Social epistemology refers to a broad set of approaches that can be taken in epistemology (the study of knowledge) that construes human knowledge as a collective achievement. Another way of characterizing social epistemology is as the evaluation o ...

'' published a special issue that discussed the responses of STS scholars like

Sandra Harding Sandra G. Harding (born 1935) is an American philosopher of feminist and postcolonial theory, epistemology, research methodology, and philosophy of science. She directed the UCLA Center for the Study of Women from 1996 to 2000, and co-edited ...

to the arguments in Nanda's book and counter-rebuts from Nanda. Scholars such as Abha Sur, Amit Prasad, Banu Subramaniam, Esha Shah, Gita Chadha, Indira Chowdhury Jahnavi Phalkey, Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Kavitha Philip, John Bosco Lourdusamy, Senthil Babu, Rohan D'Souza, Saradindu Bhaduri, Madhav Govind and Pratik Chakrabarti 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.

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. The Center for Knowledge Culture and Innovation Studies (CKCIS) at the

University of Hyderabad The University of Hyderabad (IAST: ''Hydarāvād visvavidyālayamu'') is a top ranking public central research university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Founded in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students a ...

opened in 2006, and the Centre for Studies in Science, Technology & Innovation Policy at the

Central University of Gujarat Central University of Gujarat is a public central university in Gandhinagar, Gujarat offering courses at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels. The university includes 16 schools, 14 academic departments, and 2 other special centres ...

opened in 2009. The Humanities of Social Sciences departments of many of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and

Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) are a group of premier public research institutions in India. The institutes were established by the Government of India through the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHR ...

(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.

Academic programs

* MPhil-PhD Programme in Science Policy Studies, Centre for Studies in Science Policy (CSSP), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi * 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 * 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-DelhiPhD programme in Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi
/ref> * PhD Programme, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Bhopa

References

{{Reflist

External links

STS Wiki Project

''Science, Technology and Society Journal''

''Indian Journal of History of Science''

Knowledge in Civil Society forum

A critique of postcolonial science studies
by

Science and technology in India Science education in India

Origin and development

Institutes and departments

Academic programs

See also

References

Further reading

External links