Science and the Public (History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization) Vol. XV, Part 2

The volume presents a discourse on ‘Science and the Public’ in the context of countries like India where the majority of the Public still lives in non-industralized settings. Questioning the applicability of prevailing literary trends on the subjects to Indian realities, an alternate discourse construct is presented. Existing literature, it is argued, has unfolded in the US and Europe since the Second World War, in discourse spaces circumscribed by their industrialization and Security led science policy agenda— compulsions of public accountability creating institutionalized policy research capabilities in academia and research tools, techniques and approaches to support informed discourse on Science and the Public in thus constituted spaces. As the counterpart space is missing in India’s science policy trajectory, an alternate discourse space and construct has been discerned in it that may be termed as ‘Science in the Public’ (rather than ‘Science and the Public’). Proffesor Yash Pal’s essay reflects upon the wider context of this relocation. Alternate discourse is constituted by aspects of ‘Science’ reflected in the public understanding of nature ( Gauhar Raza, hester du Plessis), in processes of science education (Vinod Raina) and in ‘knowing, feeling and doing’ of indigenous knowledge (Anil Gupta). ‘Science’ manifested in the livelihoods of the majority public living on margins of industrialization circumscribe a public-space for discourse that views science emanating from organised structures of education, scientific research and industry as coming into it from ‘outside’. The impact of tacit knowledge, subjective networks and of multidisciplinarity inherent in the former points to the emergence of a ‘new order’ in the latter (Stephen Hill). Parthsarathi Banerjee presents yet another alternate discourse construct as contest between institutions of interlocked systems of knowledge immersed in practices and feeling (‘bodily knowledge’). Chapters on science communication (Saroj Ghose and Subodh Mahanti), gender issues (Neelam Kumar) and on mobilishing informed public opinion on patents (Dinesh Abrol) provide reference points to mainstream international literary trends on the subject. Irfan Habib and Satpal Sangwan provide historical perspectives on the theme.