Chapter 11. Science writing in Hindi in colonial India
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Sandipan Baksi
Abstract
Science journalism in Hindi showed remarkable advance with the onset of the twentieth century, in a context that was shaped by the evolution of a specific form of the language, as well as by the emergence and growth of the anti-colonial freedom movement, yoked to the idea of cultural and economic nationalism. The many literary periodicals that flourished in this period provided a platform for regular science writing. Vigyan, the first popular science magazine in Hindi, began publication in 1915. It contributed profusely to the Hindi writings on and about science in pre-Independence India. This study, by way of a critical review of the writings in Vigyan, lays out the influences and motivations that led to this huge impetus to Hindi science writing in the early twentieth century. It throws light on the motivations of the agents who negotiated the process of translation of science in Hindi in colonial India. The chapter exemplifies translation of science as an aspect/component of establishing the hegemony of a language.
Abstract
Science journalism in Hindi showed remarkable advance with the onset of the twentieth century, in a context that was shaped by the evolution of a specific form of the language, as well as by the emergence and growth of the anti-colonial freedom movement, yoked to the idea of cultural and economic nationalism. The many literary periodicals that flourished in this period provided a platform for regular science writing. Vigyan, the first popular science magazine in Hindi, began publication in 1915. It contributed profusely to the Hindi writings on and about science in pre-Independence India. This study, by way of a critical review of the writings in Vigyan, lays out the influences and motivations that led to this huge impetus to Hindi science writing in the early twentieth century. It throws light on the motivations of the agents who negotiated the process of translation of science in Hindi in colonial India. The chapter exemplifies translation of science as an aspect/component of establishing the hegemony of a language.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Introduction 1
-
Section A. Constructing and disseminating knowledge in–through translation
- Chapter 1. Reading scientific translations in the first half of sixteenth-century Europe through Hernando Colón’s library 17
- Chapter 2. Jérôme Lalande, Giuseppe Toaldo and the translation of astronomical works for a wider public in the 1700s 41
- Chapter 3. Travelling knowledge in nineteenth-century science 59
- Chapter 4. Translating the Iron Curtain 81
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Section B. Linguistic strategies and visual tools in the translation of knowledge
- Chapter 5. Paratexts in sixteenth-century editions and translations of Maciej z Miechowa’s Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis 105
- Chapter 6. The Latin translation of Philosophical Transactions (1671–1681) 123
- Chapter 7. Knowledge in series 145
- Chapter 8. Knowledge transfer in the Soviet Union from the perspective of visual culture 169
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Section C. Institutions and translation policies
- Chapter 9. The Leviathan and the woods 189
- Chapter 10. Energetic visions 209
- Chapter 11. Science writing in Hindi in colonial India 229
- Chapter 12. An (imagined) community 249
- Index 269
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Introduction 1
-
Section A. Constructing and disseminating knowledge in–through translation
- Chapter 1. Reading scientific translations in the first half of sixteenth-century Europe through Hernando Colón’s library 17
- Chapter 2. Jérôme Lalande, Giuseppe Toaldo and the translation of astronomical works for a wider public in the 1700s 41
- Chapter 3. Travelling knowledge in nineteenth-century science 59
- Chapter 4. Translating the Iron Curtain 81
-
Section B. Linguistic strategies and visual tools in the translation of knowledge
- Chapter 5. Paratexts in sixteenth-century editions and translations of Maciej z Miechowa’s Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis 105
- Chapter 6. The Latin translation of Philosophical Transactions (1671–1681) 123
- Chapter 7. Knowledge in series 145
- Chapter 8. Knowledge transfer in the Soviet Union from the perspective of visual culture 169
-
Section C. Institutions and translation policies
- Chapter 9. The Leviathan and the woods 189
- Chapter 10. Energetic visions 209
- Chapter 11. Science writing in Hindi in colonial India 229
- Chapter 12. An (imagined) community 249
- Index 269
