The History of Colonial Science and Medicine in British India: Centre-Periphery Perspective

Abstract

The paper focuses on the various issues/models relating to nature of diffusion of scientific ideas and practices during the colonial period. In the process, Basalla's three phase model, the character of transmission and absorption of scientific knowledge in the period from center to non-European peripheries, and opinion of different scholars on them are critically examined. Efforts are also made to articulate a new perspective on how local issues developed within certain colonial condition often convincingly contributed to the actual creation of the western science and or medicine.