Growing the Tree of Science
Homi Bhabha and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Price: 895.00
ISBN:
9780199466900
Publication date:
30/06/2016
Hardback
320 pages
Price: 895.00
ISBN:
9780199466900
Publication date:
30/06/2016
Hardback
320 pages
Indira Chowdhury
Growing the Tree of Science examines the creation of a culture of science at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, one of India’s premier scientific institutions founded by Homi Bhabha. Chowdhury weaves together a story of personal connections, new forms of philanthropy, nationalist objectives, and ideas of citizenship and international training networks that shaped Bhabha’s Institute. This book takes a novel approach and presents a cultural history of science.
Rights: World Rights
Indira Chowdhury
Description
How does a premier institute of science come into being? How does it foster a culture promoting free thinking and original research? What impact do the policies of a newly independent nation have on the way it functions? Exploring such themes and analysing the dissonances between institutional records and individual recollections, this book narrates the unique history of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.
Acutely aware that a scientific temper had not been nurtured in colonial India, Cambridge-trained physicist Homi Bhabha, who later came to be known as the architect of India’s atomic energy programme, wished to plant the tree of science on Indian soil. Thus was born TIFR on 19 December 1945. What followed were years of dynamic growth and struggle during which some of the best minds from across the world worked as well as taught at the institute.
Using both archival documents and detailed interviews, Growing the Tree of Science blends history and memory to reinterpret institutional legacy by moving beyond Bhabha’s individual efforts and bringing to light the role of younger scientists during the formative years of TIFR. In the process emerges a fascinating account in which personal connections, novel forms of philanthropy, art and architecture, and international training networks, all come together in creating a vibrant culture of science at TIFR.
About the Author
Indira Chowdhury heads the Centre for Public History at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru, India. She has a PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Formerly a professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Dr Chowdhury’s academic interests include history, women’s studies, science history, cultural studies, translation, and lexicography.
Kindly download the flyer for more details.
Indira Chowdhury
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Prologue: Tracing Institutional History
Excerpts from My Notebooks, 2002–2007
1. Dreams and Realities
2. Science and the Creation of an
Elsewhere
3. Building a Scientific Community
4. International Networks and Institutional
Life
5. The Predicaments of Institutional
Legacy
Excerpts from My Notebooks, 2008–2010
Epilogue: Institutional Memory and Institutional
History
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Indira Chowdhury
Description
How does a premier institute of science come into being? How does it foster a culture promoting free thinking and original research? What impact do the policies of a newly independent nation have on the way it functions? Exploring such themes and analysing the dissonances between institutional records and individual recollections, this book narrates the unique history of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.
Acutely aware that a scientific temper had not been nurtured in colonial India, Cambridge-trained physicist Homi Bhabha, who later came to be known as the architect of India’s atomic energy programme, wished to plant the tree of science on Indian soil. Thus was born TIFR on 19 December 1945. What followed were years of dynamic growth and struggle during which some of the best minds from across the world worked as well as taught at the institute.
Using both archival documents and detailed interviews, Growing the Tree of Science blends history and memory to reinterpret institutional legacy by moving beyond Bhabha’s individual efforts and bringing to light the role of younger scientists during the formative years of TIFR. In the process emerges a fascinating account in which personal connections, novel forms of philanthropy, art and architecture, and international training networks, all come together in creating a vibrant culture of science at TIFR.
About the Author
Indira Chowdhury heads the Centre for Public History at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru, India. She has a PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Formerly a professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Dr Chowdhury’s academic interests include history, women’s studies, science history, cultural studies, translation, and lexicography.
Kindly download the flyer for more details.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Prologue: Tracing Institutional History
Excerpts from My Notebooks, 2002–2007
1. Dreams and Realities
2. Science and the Creation of an
Elsewhere
3. Building a Scientific Community
4. International Networks and Institutional
Life
5. The Predicaments of Institutional
Legacy
Excerpts from My Notebooks, 2008–2010
Epilogue: Institutional Memory and Institutional
History
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Text and Tradition in Early Modern North India
Tyler Williams, Anshu Malhotra, John Stratton Hawley
Historiography of Christianity in India
John C.B. Webster
Islam and Democracy in the 21st Century
Dr Tauseef Ahmad Parray
A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab
Neera Burra
Gender, Medicine, and Society in Colonial India
Sujata Mukherjee