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The Manufacture of the ‘Traditional’

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Traditional Knowledge in Modern India

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Abstract

The scientific revolution was triggered by revival of ancient Greek philosophy in Europe, after a gap of more than a thousand years. But Greek knowledge was never labeled traditional. Pre-colonial Indian kings sent missions to Europe to learn about the scientific revolution. European traders and missionaries wrote highly about Indian knowledge. Later, both of them were trying to learn and benefit from each other. Knowledge was valued, whatever be its origin. This chapter depicts how from such a position human knowledge was partitioned in a couple of centuries into traditional and modern, and why in the last few decades efforts are being made to integrate the two. The integration process going on in India is the subject matter of this book. In this chapter, we explain our approach and the plan of the book.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Later renamed Presidency College, Kolkata. Now it is a University.

  2. 2.

    Now it is Aliah University.

  3. 3.

    Estimate of per capita GDP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, India

    Nirmal Sengupta

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  1. Nirmal Sengupta
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Sengupta, N. (2019). The Manufacture of the ‘Traditional’. In: Traditional Knowledge in Modern India. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3922-2_1

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