Dhruv Raina

Dhruv Raina is a leading Philosopher and Historian of Science from India. He is best known for his work on domestication of science in colonial India, transnational intellectual networks of science and historiographies of science. Currently he is Professor of History of Science Education at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies (ZHCES), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2003-). He had been a scientist at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi from 1991 to 2002. He was the first Heinrich Zimmer Chair for Indian Philosophy and Intellectual History, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany (2010–11). His basic training is in Physics (MSc Physics, IIT Bombay), and he completed his doctoral studies with Aant Elzinga in Philosophy of Science from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden on the Jesuit enlightenment historiography of Indian Astronomy and Mathematics.

His intellectual association with S. Irfan Habib led to the publication of a series of research articles (collected lately as a volume titled, Domesticating Modern Science, 2004) on the cultural redefinition of modern science in colonial India. They edited a volume on Joseph Needham (Situating the History of Science, 1999) and also the section on Science in Twentieth South and South-East Asia for volume 7 of UNESCO's History of mankind Project.

Books

• Dhruv Raina and S. Irfan Habib (eds.). 1999. Situating the History of Science: Dialogues with Joseph Needham. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Dhruv Raina. 2003. Images and Contexts: The Historography of Science and Modernity in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Dhruv Raina and S. Irfan Habib. 2004. Domesticating Modern Science: A Social History of Science and Culture in Colonial India. New Delhi: Tulika Books.
• S. Irfan Habib and Dhruv. Raina. (eds.). 2007. Social History of Science in Colonial India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Feza Günnergun and Dhruv Raina (eds.). 2011. Science between Europe and Asia: Historical Studies on the Transmission, Adoption and Adaptation of Knowledge, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Dordrecht:Springer.
• Dhruv Raina 2015. Needham's Indian Network: The Search for a Home for the History of Science in India (1950-1970). New Delhi: Yoda Press.

External References

• Profile on JNU Website
• ''Seminar Magazine Special Issue on State of Science: a symposium on the relationship between science, knowledge and democracy (edited by Dhruv Raina)
• "Betwixt Jesuit and Enlightenment HIstoriography: Jean-Sylvain Baily's History of Indian Astronomy"
• "A Study in the Social-epistemology of "Science and Society" Education at Indian Universities and Technical Institutes"
• Institutions and the Global Transfer of Knowledge: A Discussion
• "How to Go to Heaven or How the Heavens Go?"
• "The Making of a Classic: The Contemporary Significance of P.C. Ray’s Historical Approach"
• "The Naturalization of Modern Science in South Asia: A Historical Overview of the Processes of Domestication and Globalization"
• Articles in Down to Earth Magazine