The Moral Legitimation of Modern Science: Bhadralok Reflections on Theories of Evolution

Abstract

This paper takes up the discussion of a nineteenth-century theory of science — that of biological evolution — among members of the Indian National Council of Education, and in the pages of an important journal called The Dawn, published from Calcutta between 1897 and 1913. It discusses how, toward the turn of the century, science was legitimated as a morally worthy endeavour among the Bengali Bhadralok community. The debate pursued in The Dawn was representative of the anxieties and aspirations of that community, which had embarked upon the project of modernity, and was the first on the Indian continent to take modern Western science seriously. The socio-political context of the debate is important, in that the nationalist struggle for freedom from British rule was gathering momentum, and received notions of progress and social evolution were open to questioning and challenge. While colonialism is a backdrop for this study, the paper's main focus is the act of cultural redefinition of modern science in a non-Western context.