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CATEGORIES:Twentieth Century Think Tank
SUMMARY:Science\, scientific method and rationality: Nehru
 's engagement with Ayurveda - Renny Thomas (Univer
 sity of Delhi)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20180517T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20180517T140000
UID:TALK104566AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/104566
DESCRIPTION:This paper\, through detailed archival work looks 
 at Nehru's engagement with Indian knowledge system
 s. It looks at various ways in which Nehru tried i
 mposing the identity of tradition/religion/superst
 ition to knowledge systems such as Ayurveda. He ma
 kes a clear distinction between tradition and mode
 rnity\, wherein western medicine is seen as modern
 \, and Indian as traditional.\n\nJawaharlal Nehru\
 , India's first prime minister\, was a spokesperso
 n of modern science and technology and saw element
 s of emancipation in it. For him\, scientific meth
 od through laboratory work was the only way to 'va
 lidate' any systems of knowledge. The massive inst
 itutionalization of modern science and technology 
 invited anger from some politicians and leaders as
  these projects had totally ignored Indian systems
  of medicine like Ayurveda and Unani. To become 'm
 odern' the existing knowledge systems were asked t
 o prove their scientificity. There were politician
 s who thought Nehru lacked an understanding of the
  'Indian knowledge system'. Nehru responded to the
  advocates of Indian systems of knowledge by sayin
 g that the Government will not support non-scienti
 fic\, religious and superstitious beliefs and prac
 tices. Indian systems such as Ayurveda was perceiv
 ed as religious by Nehru\, wherein he clearly made
  a distinction between science and religion\; west
 ern system as rational and scientific\, and Indian
  systems of knowledge as religious. While one must
  be conscious of the right-wing Hindutva version o
 f Indian systems of knowledge\, one needs to also 
 look critically the way in which modern science an
 d medicine was used to marginalize Indian systems 
 such as Ayurveda during Nehru's time.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philoso
 phy of Science
CONTACT:Richard Staley
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