In Needham’s Indian Network: The Search for a Home for the History of Science in India (1950–1970), Dhruv Raina traces the long-range networks that institutionalized the disciplinary history of science in India soon after its independence in 1947. Using primarily archival materials deposited at the Needham Research Institute, Raina shows that Joseph Needham (1900–95)—the famous Cambridge biochemist, Sinologist, and inaugurator of the ongoing Science and Civilisation in China series—was a constant source of inspiration and a frequent interlocutor for a generation of Indian historians and philosophers. These included Damodar Dharmanada (D. D.) Kosambi (1907–66), Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1918–93), Abdur Rahman (1923–2009), and Irfan Habib (1931– ), among others. They sought Needham’s advice on building academic communities and infrastructure for the history of science in India, conversed at length with Needham in person or through decades-long correspondence on comparative issues, and...
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1 June 2020
Issue Editors
Book Review|
June 01 2020
Needham's Indian Network: The Search for a Home for the History of Science in India (1950–1970)
Raina, Dhruv,
Needham’s Indian Network: The Search for a Home for the History of Science in India (1950–1970)
New Delhi
: Yoda Press
, 2015
. 135
pp. ₹250 softcover.
Leon Antonio Rocha
Leon Antonio Rocha
School of History and Heritage, University of Lincoln, UK email: lrocha@lincoln.ac.uk
Leon Antonio Rocha is senior lecturer in Chinese history and society at the University of Lincoln, UK. He is currently working on two book-length projects, Harnessing Pleasure: Imagining Chinese Sexuality in the Twentieth Century and Needham Questions. He is currently the principal investigator of a collaborative project, funded by Wellcome Trust, titled “Mapping and Diagnosing Mental Health in/and the UK University Sector.”
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East Asian Science, Technology and Society (2020) 14 (2): 419–422.
Citation
Leon Antonio Rocha; Needham's Indian Network: The Search for a Home for the History of Science in India (1950–1970). East Asian Science, Technology and Society 1 June 2020; 14 (2): 419–422. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/18752160-8539824
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