Science And National Consciousness In Bengal

Download or read book Science and National Consciousness in Bengal written by J. Lourdusamy and published by Orient Blackswan. This book was released on 2004 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives a flavour of the Indian response to modern science by analysing the lives and careers of four scientifically influential personalities in Bengal. His analysis of the careers of two scientists, J. C. Bose and P. C. Ray, and two institution builders, Mahendralal Sircar and Asutosh Mookerjee, brings to light the issues related to science at a time of colonialism and nationalism. Scientists often had to depend on British institutions for legitimation and funding, while also supporting the nationalist cause for greater autonomy. One of the central claims of this book is that the protagonists aimed to contribute to a modern world science, one based on a strong sense of universalism. They did not aim to construct any alternative sciences, though they did express and apply their work by drawing on their cultural heritage. This makes Science and National Consciousness a work of particular relevance today, when a homogenous, instrumentalist and totally Western conception of science is being globally accepted.

Download or read book Futures of Artificial Intelligence written by Robert M Geraci and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-12 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty-first century life is increasingly governed by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as machine learning, big data analysis, facial recognition, and robotics. For decades, an ideology of apocalyptic progress and cosmic transformation has accompanied the advancement of AI in the United States; that vision is intimately connected to transhumanism, the idea that humanity can transcend its limits, even mortality, using technology. Based on contributions from science and science fiction, advocates of such apocalyptic AI suggest that the world will soon see godlike machine intelligence and that human beings will upload their minds into immortal machine bodies. The arrival of this ideology in India raises questions about how global cultures can contribute to AI technology and our beliefs about AI. These beliefs have gained a foothold in Indian visions of AI, but they have not been accepted uncritically; rather, Indian scientists and futurists revise the transhumanist vision and illustrate how traditional Hindu values can add to the global perspective. By describing the arrival and reconfiguration of transhumanist ideas in India, this book reveals how the nexus of religion and technology contributes to public life and our modern self-understanding while suggesting that the apocalyptic approach to AI should be tempered by other visions. By tracing the movement of apocalyptic AI into India and exploring Indian efforts to redefine those transhumanist aspirations, Futures of Artificial Intelligence opens the door for rethinking our global approach to AI and advocates for technologies and visions of technology that advance human flourishing.

Download or read book Islamic Radicalisation In India: Origin And Challenges written by Arun Anand and published by Prabhat Prakashan. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islamic Radicalisation In India: Origin And Challenges Book in English by Arun Anand Two sets of developments have become quite visible over the last fewyears. While scores of activists belonging to Hindu organisations havebeen killed by radical Islamists; there Is also a growing clamour within a sectionof Indian Muslims to assert their religious identity aggressively and display itexplicitly. There are some crucial aspects of radicalisation of Muslims in India thatneed to be understood. First, unlike the western world, radicalisation in India ishappening not only in urban areas but also in far flung as well as remote ruralareas. The population in rural India needs to be watched and monitored moreclosely in this regard. Second, radicalisation in India has been ‘legitimised’ in thename of ‘protecting minority rights’ by many political parties for garneringMuslim votes. Their regressive stand on issues like hijab and silence on thekilling of Hindu activists by radical Islamists further perpetuates radicalisation.Third, as a society we are refusing to learn lessons from the past. Radicalisationof Muslims led to partition of India in 1947. It is time not to be like that pigeonwho closes eyes thinking the cat doesn't exist and ends getting eaten up.

Download or read book The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India written by Somaditya Banerjee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-14 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph offers a cultural history of the development of physics in India during the first half of the twentieth century, focusing on Indian physicists Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970) and Meghnad Saha (1893-1956). The analytical category "bhadralok physics" is introduced to explore how it became possible for a highly successful brand of modern science to develop in a country that was still under colonial domination. The term Bhadralok refers to the then emerging group of native intelligentsia, who were identified by academic pursuits and manners. Exploring the forms of life of this social group allows a better understanding of the specific character of Indian modernity that, as exemplified by the work of bhadralok physicists, combined modern science with indigenous knowledge in an original program of scientific research. The three scientists achieved the most significant scientific successes in the new revolutionary field of quantum physics, with such internationally recognized accomplishments as the Saha ionization equation (1921), the famous Bose-Einstein statistics (1924), and the Raman Effect (1928), the latter discovery having led to the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a scientist from Asia. This book analyzes the responses by Indian scientists to the radical concept of the light quantum, and their further development of this approach outside the purview of European authorities. The outlook of bhadralok physicists is characterized here as "cosmopolitan nationalism," which allows us to analyze how the group pursued modern science in conjunction with, and as an instrument of Indian national liberation.

Download or read book The Rays before Satyajit written by Chandak Sengoopta and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-04 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the history of Indian cinema, the name of Satyajit Ray needs no introduction. However, what remains unvoiced is the contribution of his forebears and their tryst with Indian modernity. Be it in art, advertising, and printing technology or in nationalism, feminism, and cultural reform, the earlier Rays attempted to create forms of the modern that were uniquely Indian and cosmopolitan at the same time. Some of the Rays, especially Upendrakishore and his son, Sukumar, are iconic figures in Bengal. But even Bengali historiography is almost exclusively concerned with the family’s contributions to children’s literature. However, as this study highlights, the family also played an important role in engaging with new forms of cultural modernity. Apart from producing literary works of enduring significance, they engaged in diverse reformist endeavours. The first comprehensive work in English on the pre-Satyajit generations, The Rays before Satyajit is more than a collective biography of an extraordinary family. It interweaves the Ray saga with the larger history of Indian modernity.

Download or read book The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 8, Modern Science in National, Transnational, and Global Context written by Hugh Richard Slotten and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 1046 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume in the highly respected Cambridge History of Science series is devoted to exploring the history of modern science using national, transnational, and global frames of reference. Organized by topic and culture, its essays by distinguished scholars offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date nondisciplinary history of modern science currently available. Essays are grouped together in separate sections that represent larger regions: Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, and Latin America. Each of these regional groupings ends with a separate essay reflecting on the analysis in the preceding chapters. Intended to provide a balanced and inclusive treatment of the modern world, contributors analyze the history of science not only in local, national, and regional contexts but also with respect to the circulation of knowledge, tools, methods, people, and artifacts across national borders.

Download or read book History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization: pt. 1. Science, technology, imperialism and war written by Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya and published by Pearson Education India. This book was released on 1999 with total page 1240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: