Meera Nanda Boeken

There is much talk of the glories of ancient Hindu sciences in India today. Landmark discoveries in every field of science, from mathematics to medicine, are being credited to ancient scientists-sages of India. This book places such priority claims in a comparative global history of science. While fully acknowledging the substantial contributions of Indian geometers, mathematicians, physicians, artisans and craftsmen, it challenges their glorification for nationalistic purposes. It also questions the neo-Hindu scientization of yoga and Vedanta pioneered by Swami Vivekananda. Backed by the best available scholarship on history of science, this book offers a reading of history of Indian science without the hype that has come to surround it.

In four celebrated and controversial essays Meera Nanda connects religious fundamentalism with fascism and talks about the responsibility of intellectuals. She examines the link between Hindutva and reactionary modernism, argues for linking rationalism and science for the cause of social justice and provides a detailed critique of anti-rationalist and anti-secularist currents dominant in several academic and research circles in India. This little book is a timely reminder to all those who believe in the necessity of intellectual and moral intervention in the present affairs of society and culture. Whereas the Hindu right is busy claiming the products of modern science and technology as a part of its own heritage, the postmodernist and postcolonial intellectuals have sought to insulate non-Western cultures from modern science, which they see as alien and oppressive. The essays in the book simultaneously defend the enterprise of modern science and secularism and call for deploying scientific knowledge as a cultural weapon against the neo-traditionalist as well as reactionary modernist understanding of the world. At a juncture when India is seeing an intensification of neo-liberal globalization and the rise of Hindu nationalism, this book serves as a timely warning. First published in 2002, this book has gone on to become a classic.

Meera Nanda's book is an impassioned plea for secularization of mentalities. She compares the secular polities of India and America to argue that, faced with the current right wing assault, secular constitutions alone cannot guarantee secularism. She examines how India's major ecological movements have been reframed by Brahminical Hinduism with some unintended but crucial help from those within these movements. Her work shows the interconnections between the Hindutva scientism and national chauvinism, a factor crucial for its middle class support and its 'reactionary modernism'.