A Field Matures: Technology, Science, and Western Colonialism

Abstract

Review Essay A FIELD MATURES: TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, AND WESTERN COLONIALISM MICHAEL ADAS Books reviewed in this essay: Deepak Kumar, Science and the Raj, 1857-1905 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994); Roy MacLeod and Deepak Kumar, eds., Technology and the Raj: West­ ern Technology and Technical Transfers to India, 1700-1947 (New Delhi, London, and Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995). These two volumes, which focus on the premier colonial posses­ sion of the greatest of the imperial powers, underscore the impor­ tance of the rather recent, but growing, emphasis on the technologi­ cal and scientific dimensions of the encounter between the expansive nation-states ofwestern Europe and all other human soci­ eties. Until the last decade or so, the paucity of serious explorations oftechnological and scientific transfers in the centuries ofEuropean overseas expansion was one of the more salient features of the histo­ riography of colonialism. As both the contributions to the collection edited by Roy MacLeod and Deepak Kumar and Kumar’s own narra­ tive overview ofthe history ofEuropean science in British India make clear, this lacuna is all the more striking because in the long term the effects of the introduction of Western science and technology into colonized societies are proving more profoundly transformative than the political systems and social struggles that had all but mo­ nopolized the attention of historians of European imperialism until the 1980s. In fact, as these studies amply demonstrate, technological innovations and Western scientific paradigms played a much greater role in shaping the political and socioeconomic transformations as­ sociated with Western domination than much of literature on colo­ nialism would lead one to believe. Dr. Adas is Abraham Voorhees Professor of History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick and the author of Machines as the Measure ofMen: Science, Technology and Ideologies of Western Dominance (Ithaca, N.Y., 1989).© 1997 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/97/3802-0009$01.00 478 Technology, Science, and Western Colonialism 479 Surprisingly little space is devoted in either of these volumes to advances in military technology and the sweeping innovations in sea transport and instrumentation that were essential to Europe’s global domination. Reflecting a decidedly Eurocentric bias in the early his­ toriography of colonialism, these sources of European superiority were the major focus ofearly writing on technology and colonialism, as exemplified by the pioneering works of J. H. Parry, Pierre Chaunu, William H. McNeill, and Daniel Headrick.1 In his contribu­ tion to Technology and the Raj, Satpal Sangwan argues that, on the commercial side at least, Indian shipbuilding continued to be a match for that in Europe—though often as a result of the willingness of Indian designers and craftsmen to adopt European innovations. Other essays on the technological underpinnings of European mili­ tary and political ascendancy concentrate on systems thatwere essen­ tial to political control and ongoing administration, such as tele­ graph and railway networks. Despite a rather misleading tide, Saroj Ghose’s examination of the former is almost wholly devoted to the “military necessities” rather than the “commercial needs” side of the establishment of the telegraph system. The bulk of the piece concentrates on the critical part this new mode of communication played in the British suppression of the great Indian rebellion of 1857-58. Ian Derbyshire’s treatment of “The Building of India’s Railways,” in the same volume, provides a much more broadly conceived han­ dling of the technological system that was perhaps the most vital both to effective British control over the vast and diverse Indian sub­ continent and to the colonizers’ ability to tap extensively its re­ sources and develop its commercial potential. In addition to a de­ tailed account of the ways in which railway construction—from railbeds to trestles—developed through a fusion oftechnology trans­ fers from Great Britain and techniques (though seldom tools) indig­ enous to India itself, Derbyshire provides a superb discussion of the emergence and ethos of civil engineering in colonial India. He traces the many connections between this process and the profes­ sionalization of engineering in the British metropolis itself. Particu­ larly in his handling of these issues, Derbyshire moves conceptually beyond even the best of...