Hyderabad: If one needs to perceive the emergence of Hyderabad as a globalised science and expertise hub, one has to return to the lengthy journey of its data establishments because the center of the nineteenth century.
This was said by well-known creator and journalist Dr Dinesh C Sharma in his valedictory tackle on the three-day convention of the Society for the History of Science Kolkata, hosted by the Department of History and H Okay Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies on the Maulana Azad National Urdu University.
The historical past of science helps in taking a look at science and expertise not simply as one thing that occurs in a laboratory or a workshop flooring, however as a human exercise that’s formed by the tradition, politics, and society of its time. An necessary facet of the historical past of science is to illustrate the worldwide and interconnected character of data.
He mentioned, “Besides the Musi riverfront, engineering and urban renewal projects conceptualised by M Visvesvaraya, Hyderabad has seen significant developments in science and technology in the past 150 years or so.” These embrace the expansion of trendy drugs in Hyderabad, astronomy and the work of Nizamiah Observatory, and the establishing of Osmania University as India’s first fully-vernacular establishment the place every little thing from philosophy to engineering was taught in an Indian language, ie, Urdu. All these tasks helped develop a tradition of science in Hyderabad early on. They positioned Hyderabad on the worldwide map, constructed the arrogance of the rulers in trendy drugs and analysis.
Gaps in historical past of science
Dr Sharma pointed to necessary gaps in the understanding of the historical past of science in India in the post-independence period. “Only in recent years, we are beginning to see books on this period, be it planned development, green revolution, technology development, etc. As I see it, we need more work on institutional histories – not just IITs but research laboratories, university science departments, biographies of scientists beyond those of celebrated scientists like J C Bose, Bhabha, Mahalanobis, etc. as well as histories of science cities,” he added.
The historical past of science is seen as a subset of the self-discipline of historical past. It needn’t be so. It needs to be a multi- and inter-disciplinary endeavour. Our scientific establishments, such because the CSIR and ICMR, in addition to ICAR, ought to acknowledge and fund the historical past of science as a self-discipline.
He mentioned, “One of the ways to enhance a greater appreciation of the history of science is to make it accessible. Just as public understanding of science is important, public understanding of the history of science is also important. This is the responsibility of practitioners of the history of science.”
The concluding session was additionally addressed by Prof Farhat Hasan ( Delhi University), Prof Shakeel Ahmed ( Islamic University of Science and Technology, Kashmir), and Prof. P H Mohammad (MANUU).