INDIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE最新文献

This essay explores the life and work of Dr. Yellapragada Subba Rao, an Indian scientist whose contributions to medical science have profoundly impacted the world. From his early days in India to his time at Harvard University, Subba Rao’s innovative research led to the development of several important drugs, including the first chemotherapy agent for leukemia and the discovery of diethylcarbamazine for filariasis treatment. Despite his many achievements, Subba Rao never received the recognition he deserved during his lifetime. However, his legacy lives on through the countless lives he has saved and the ongoing research inspired by his work. This essay sheds light on the critical contributions of Subba Rao to medical science and the remarkable impact his work has had on society.

Dams and ensuing development is a contentious topic that has occupied scholars forages, and the present article endeavors to show how the process of construction of Bhakra dam could influence the history and future of a princely state and its subjects that had been ruled by “Rajas” of Kehloor (Bilaspur) for more than 1250 years. This paper focuses on the project’s history during Colonial India from 1908 to 1947. It was the period when the seed of the idea was first sowed, and the machinations behind it would eventually decide the fate of Bilaspur’s small independent state. It involved the possibility of losing its identity and land and, notably, the loss of sovereign rights of its people. The independent principality ceased to exist in post-colonial India as it became a district in Himachal Pradesh. The relocation heaped on the masses remained silent in the annals of history, and those rendered homeless remained without a voice. The Dam’s construction depended on the consent of the Raja of Bilaspur and, finally, the government of India, which is the major player in the politics surrounding the Dam.

Indigenous knowledge is considered the invaluable treasure of any particular community. It refers to unique traditional knowledge within a specific geographic area that facilitates indigenous cultural development. Sustainable development is an economically viable, environmentally, and socially beneficial process that balances the present and future communities' needs, for which preservation, promotion, and transmission are the primary requisites. The present study focuses on the Kurmi Mahatos, and their reliance on the traditional methods of using plant and animal species for medical assistance. Indigenous peoples and their knowledge are considered the guardians of the earth, as their conventional practices of medical assistance focus on managing natural resources to the fullest. Their knowledge represents a collection of cultural wisdom for natural resource management, along with the incorporation of caring and respect. Conserving their knowledge of medicinal plants and animals is vital to sustainable development. The S–W–O–C index highlights the chances between resistance and potentiality of this traditional practice.

An animal symbol faces a sign on 33 Indus seal-impressions. Using this ‘frontality’ as a benchmark, this paper verifies the following: 1. The validity of a line break in a frontal sequence and elsewhere in a corpus of at least 2906 objects, 2. Sign order and reading direction in the benchmark dataset and the rest of the corpus, 3. Sign oder, transposed sign order, and the signals of transposition (the markers and agencies of anisotropy) which follow five rules, labelled D1–D5, besides a violation of these rules, labelled Dx, 4. That the system is minimally isotropic, labelled D0, 5. How a frontal sequence prescribes a sign order that others follow or signal it with a marker when they do not, 6. A relationship between sign and symbol that is analogous with ‘A for Apple’, 7. The design logic of the Indus sign system and how formative signs are transformed by sign doubling, mirroring, repetitive stringing, and a finite set of intrinsic and extrinsic markers, 8. The precise functional value of four Indus graphemes, one marker, IM-99, to signal a transposition, another marker, IM-98, to conceal a sign string, and two more markers, IM-97 and 123, to differentiate signs with identical multiples, and 9. How a seal in the frontal dataset talks to another seal. The above are understood through a simulation to study sign position in relation to sign transposition. A transposed sign order is created taking a naturally occurring sign order from a frontal seal. The study then seeks the recurrence of this ‘cooked’ order elsewhere in the corpus and reports the cause and effect of transposition, respectively, agency and marker. The study is range-relaxed and explains adjacent sign behaviour, as well as distant sign behaviour.

The paper looks into the indigenous medical tradition and the exchange of botanical knowledge that happened throughout colonialism and even before it to highlight Kerala’s local knowledge base from around eleventh century CE, especially in botany. Plant-based healing practices have been followed in Kerala since antiquity, and the local physicians had considerable knowledge about the properties of the plants they used in and as medicines. The most common spices used in medicines in Kerala include pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon. We also find a similar usage pattern in some early and medieval Western medicines. Since spices did not grow within European geography, it aroused much curiosity about their habitat and uses. This led to a quest for spices and an exchange of knowledge, especially regarding the properties and uses of the plants and spices used as medicines. The medical and botanical developments of early modern Kerala, the European curiosity about spices and plants of the East and how it became grounds for the exchange of knowledge and information relating to the botany of the region and its subsequent presence in European medicine in the medieval and early modern times forms the crux of this paper.

In 1967, George Basalla posed the question: “How did modern science diffuse from Western Europe and find its place in the world?” Here, we consider this question particularized to India: “How did modern science find its place in India?” In answering his own question Basalla posited a 3-phase model–one that has been severely criticized by some prominent social historians and sociologists of modern Indian science. In this paper, we question Basalla’s question anew from the perspective of cognitive history, wherein the focus is on specific, individual scientific productions as knowledge-consuming/knowledge-generating creative phenomena. Drawing on Asiatic Society records on the work of British scientists in nineteenth century India and contributions made in the same period by five Indian pioneers of science, namely, Radhanath Sikdar, Yesudas Ramchandra, Mahendra Lal Sircar, Jagadis Chandra Bose and Prafulla Chandra Ray–each of whom is presented here as representing a distinct aspect of science–we argue that: (1) the biographical records of the British scientists in nineteenth century India does not resonate in important ways with phase I of the Basalla model; (2) with one notable exception, the work of the British scientists and that of the Indian protagonists ran on essentially parallel tracks; (3) the distinction between Basalla’s phase II ‘colonial scientist’ and phase III ‘independent scientist’ dissolves in the case of our Indian protagonists; and (4) most importantly, we answer the Basalla question by way of identifying specific and distinctive contributions made to the knowledge-consuming/knowledge-producing enterprises constituting creative science. In the final analysis, we suggest that the Basalla model played virtually no role in understanding or explaining the genesis of modern science in India as practiced by our protagonists.

The paper attempts to study the Indigenous method of jhum, or shifting cultivation, and British attitude towards it. It was a popular method of cultivation not only in Colonial Assam but also in various parts of the country. Though jhum has been practiced for several millennia and found to be suitable for the climate of Assam, the British government tried to ban this form of cultivation for their interest. To meet the need of timber for railways, shipbuilding, etc., they wanted to expand plantation areas, and shifting cultivation was an obstacle to that. But the native people were not in favour of giving up their practice of jhum cultivation, and even the revenue officers demanded a mid-way to resolve the issue. This resulted in the adaptation of the taungya system of cultivation in which both cultivation and plantation could go simultaneously. The method used for the study is empirical and historical. Both primary sources such as forest administrative reports for Assam, Assam District Gazatteers and other official records collected from the National Archive of India, New Delhi and the Directorate of Assam State Archive, Guwahati and secondary sources such as books and research articles have been used for the study.

This review focuses on tracing the history of entomophagy practice since the time of ancient archaic humans and the development of this practice that persisted until today among ethnic communities, with particular reference to the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Insects as food is a trending research topic due to their potential as a future sustainable food. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the tribal population of Arunachal Pradesh was largely isolated, though the practice of eating insects prevailed among the majority of its tribal groups. Only in recent times has the need for alternative food resources, due to the impact of globalization, climatic crisis, and resource depletion worldwide, pushed for scientific exploration, which is gaining momentum. The history of anthropo-entomophagy and its sociocultural significance is explored in this study. The present paper also describes the ongoing scientific exploration toward the value of edible insects as neutraceutical, entomoceutical, and pest control tools historically being used by Apatanese and the prospect of these edible insects for the tribe in the future.

Dr. Suresh Prasad Sarbadhikari (1866–1921) was a leading surgeon and a gynaecologist of colonial Bengal who left his mark not only in medical science, but also as an educationist and social worker. Born into an affluent and educated family, Sarbadhikari graduated from Calcutta Medical College and became a well-known doctor, contributing to ovariotomy and medical research. His name spread worldwide when he presented the impactful paper ‘Ovariotomy in Bengal’ at the first Indian Medical Congress in 1894. His reputation as a gynaecologist who could operate on patients at their homes, gradually replaced the monopoly of European doctors in Bengal and brought brilliant Bengali doctors into prominence. Sarbadhikari played a prominent role in establishing Carmichael Medical College in Kolkata and actively participated in the senate of Calcutta University. He formed the Bengal Ambulance Corps during WWI, comprising Bengali medical men who played heroic roles in Mesopotamia. He earned fabulously but donated generously to social causes. Brilliant, highly professional, honest, and patriotic- Sarbadhikari became a role model for many subsequent generations of doctors. Yet, the present generation has nearly forgotten the name of this great son of Bengal. This article is a homage to Dr. Sarbadhikari.

India’s first test baby-Kanupriya, also known as Durga, was born on 3 October 1978, just 67 days after the birth of Louise Brown in England. She was the brainchild of Dr. Subhas Mukherjee, a reproductive biologist from Kolkata, India. This idea was way ahead of its time. Thus, it met with harsh criticism and rejection. Dr. Subhas faced severe humiliation, constant repudiation, and multiple transfers. This led to his tragic death on 19 June 1981. In 1997, Dr. T. C. Anand Kumar, former director of the Institute of Research in Reproduction (now ICMR-NIRRCH), Mumbai, who had headed the team that led to the birth of India’s first ‘scientifically documented’ test-tube baby ‘Harsha’ in 1986, assessed Dr. Mukherjee’s diaries, papers, and handwritten notes on his technique and after that credited Dr. Mukherjee by extensively writing about his pioneering feat. In 2002, after 21 years of his death, ICMR recognized his work for the first time. Dr. Mukherjee’s method of combining in vitro fertilization and cryopreservation of human embryos is the currently preferred technique of medically assisted reproduction. Dr. Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize for creating a test tube baby in 2010. Though Dr. Subhas Mukherjee was the first Asian to discover such a process and the first to discover live birth from frozen embryos, he never got recognition during his lifetime. Till now, he has not received any honor of such magnitude. Much of Dr. Subhas’s work remains unpublished because of restrictions and prohibitions by the authorities. We believe, there is a need to preserve and document Dr. Mukherjee’s work to make it a familiar name in India. For this purpose, meticulous, unbiased, and thorough analysis of all the available material was necessary. This project was undertaken with this intention.