History and Philosophy of Science
THIS year also, the Indian Science Congress held in Jalandhar, covered itself with shame; as it has been doing for the last few years. Venkataramanan Ramakrishnan, the Nobel Prize winning scientist, had called it a … Read more
Most of those who led the charge against science explaining nature, are now surprised that climate-change deniers have stolen their theme song. Immersed in the assault on science, this group of thinkers simply overlooked the … Read more
The Bakhshali Manuscripts, a collection of 70 odd leaves of birch bark, containing a wealth of mathematical methods, have finally been dated. The oldest of the three samples tested was written as early as the … Read more
The belief of Aryan superiority and identifying Aryans with white skin and blue eyes was a strong component of Nazi Germany’s racial beliefs. It was intimately connected to the larger racial construction underlying imperialism. A … Read more
Racism is intimately connected with imperialism and serves as one of its ideological underpinnings. The growth of racism in the West has been historically co-terminus with the growth of colonialism. Colonising Africa, Asia and the … Read more
In Alexandria, Egypt, there is a Greco-Romanic museum founded by two Frenchman in 1890’s. The striking feature of this museum is its attempt to portray Egypt under the Ptolemy’s as essentially Greek. Alexander founded Alexandria … Read more
The evolution of humanity from the more ape like ancestors may appear to be only a scientific question. However, race and class viewpoints are intimately connected to such questions as they impact the structure of … Read more
The history of human evolution has always been deeply tainted by the politics of race. Initially, the reigning anthropologists argued that the races were virtually different species, descended independently from the apes — the thesis … Read more
Are we moving forward or backward in time? The recent proposal of the University Grants Commission to introduce courses on astrology, vastushastra and Hindu mathematics in science curricula, has been greeted with exclamations of disbelief … Read more
This is an abridged version of the original article published in the May 11th issue of “The Militant”) BARRIO Adentro, which translates roughly as “Into the heart of the neighbourhood,” is the name of a … Read more
THE annual ritual called the Indian Science Congress was held in Chandigarh in the first week of January. The event came and went with little notice taken in the media or by the wider public. … Read more
Neither of the prevailing views of technology – as violently subjugating nature or as derivative of science – quite describes the way technology is actually practised. A bird’s eye view of science and technology can … Read more