This book investigates the interface of science and society especially in the context of the colonisation of India. It begins with discussing the strengths and weaknesses of inheritance of scientific traditions, and gradually moves to exploring the changes brought about by colonisation before going on to analyse the way society grappled with these changes. Divided into four parts and based on extensive use of primary data, ‘Culture’ of Science and the Making of Modern India takes into account the contestations, adaptations, compromises and hybridity without ignoring the overarching framework of colonialism.

Closely linked to the power or success of the colonial or metropolitan knowledge is the status and relevance of the indigenous or non-Western knowledge. Can the indigenous be viewed as historical and social reality or should it be understood only in a metaphysical sense? The indigenous has a historicity of its own, if the evidence from the text and the context are studied together. The recent wave of extended deductions of neo-Orientalism, courtesy a power shift, cannot erase this historicity founded on the study of diverse yet`1695 authentic sources.