A remarkable intellectual effervescence, which began in the early 20th century led to a series of interdisciplinary debate around genetics, cytology, botany and eugenics amongst scientists globally. The outcome of these debates was a better understanding of humanity’s past and a role of humans within the natural world gradually leading to an anti-racist science movement and post-war environmentalism by the mid-20th century. This exhibition explores for the first time the development of these debates and the network of scientists that emerged in Britain and India and the unrecognised contribution of Western-trained colonial scientists including the role of a pioneering Indian woman scientist, E.K. Janaki Ammal. We hope, thereby, to enhance our understanding of the practices of science in this period by examining the role of race, gender and indigenous knowledge from the colonies in the cross-fertilisation of ideas. The impact of these debates will be analysed in reference to scientific humanism, which continues to be a significant part of the humanist movement in Britain today and one which was also instrumental in transforming India post-independence and has been one of India’s foundational principles. Using a range of previously unpublished archival photographs and objects the exhibition uncovers this hidden history of science and the role of India and Indian scientists in some key debates on genetics, humanism and environmentalism. The Exhibition also includes a commissioned film on the life of E.K. Janaki Ammal, Indian botanist and cyologist, Janaki Ammal and the Genetical Society, Directed by Susan Thomson.
Curators: Professor Vinita Damodaran Mike Rayner (University of Sussex) Exhibition installation by Dr. Anindita Saha Film by Susan Thomson With thanks to: The Botanical Survey of India, The John Innes Centre and the British Library. With special thanks to Dr. Ashiho Mao, Dr. Manas Bhaumik, Dr. Anindita Saha, Dr. Sarah Wilmot, Professor Paul Basu, Dr. Mick Frogley, Dr. Antonia Moon, Dr. Benedict Burbridge, Dr. Sangeeta DasGupta, Dr. Perpetua Kirby, Laharee Mitra, and the children of the Mangrove School Project.
Image: Jawaharlal Nehru at the Indian Science Congress, 1949. (c) Public domain
Exhibition Panels: Science, Humanism and the Making of Modern India The Modern Synthesis Science and the Colonies Eugenics Scientific Humanism, Anti-Racism and Nehruvian Science Ecology and Environmentalism Conclusion
2023 Exhibition Launch a...
Curators: Professor Vinita Damodaran Mike Rayner (University of Sussex) Exhibition installation by Dr. Anindita Saha Film by Susan Thomson With thanks to: The Botanical Survey of India, The John Innes Centre and the British Library. With special thanks to Dr. Ashiho Mao, Dr. Manas Bhaumik, Dr. Anindita Saha, Dr. Sarah Wilmot, Professor Paul Basu, Dr. Mick Frogley, Dr. Antonia Moon, Dr. Benedict Burbridge, Dr. Sangeeta DasGupta, Dr. Perpetua Kirby, Laharee Mitra, and the children of the Mangrove School Project.
Image: Jawaharlal Nehru at the Indian Science Congress, 1949. (c) Public domain
Exhibition Panels: Science, Humanism and the Making of Modern India The Modern Synthesis Science and the Colonies Eugenics Scientific Humanism, Anti-Racism and Nehruvian Science Ecology and Environmentalism Conclusion
2023 Exhibition Launch a...