Indian Response to European Science and Technology 1757–1857

¹ Analysing the introduction of Western science into non-European nations Basalla identified the non-scientific society with the ‘absence of modern western science’. Basalla, George, ‘The Spread of Western Science’, Science, 156, 5 05 1967, pp. 611–22.

² Qaisar, A. J., The Indian Response to European Technology and Culture 1498–1707, New Delhi, 1982.

³ The term ‘native’ denotes the original inhabitants of India.

⁴ We find the Europeans in the beginning of their career in India coaxing the local rulers through the agency of the numerous novelties which the latter brought with them. The items included globes, glasses, mechanical clocks, binoculars and a host of other strange things. For more details see Qaisar, , op. cit. (2), pp. 7–19, 143.

⁵ It has been generally stated that for a course of years, roughly until the 1680s, ‘the position of the English in India was that of a company of commercial speculation, who had invested a large amount of hard cash in their speculation and wanted a good dividend. Money was their motive, money was their guiding principle, money was their end, intrigue and negotiation, their modus operandi.’ Monier, Monier Williams, Modern India and the Indians, London, 1879, pp. 268–69. See also Martinequ, H., British Rule in India: A Historical Sketch, London, 1857, p. 42.

⁶ It appears to have been in 1689 that the English Company was first seized with the idea of an English dominion in India. Sir Josia Child ‘Captain General and Admiral of India’ framed a resolution to stress that ‘the increase of our revenue is the subject of our care, as much as our trade; it is that must maintain our force when 20 accidents may interrupt our trade, its that must make us a nation in India, without that we are but a great number of interlopers,… fit only to trade where nobody of power thinks it their interest to prevent us.’ McDonald, Donald, Surgeons Two and a Barber, London, 1950 p. 23.

⁷ Lord Wellesley, the main architect of British empire in India, had categorically stated that ‘the Empire must be considered as a sacred trust and a permanent possession. Duty, policy and honour require that it should not be administered as a temporary and precarious acquistion.’ Woodford, Peggy, Rise of the Raj, London, 1978, p. 76.

⁸ Rickards, R., India or Facts Submitted to Illustrate the Character and Condition of Native Inhabitants, London, 1829, p. 5; Robert, Ema, Scenes and Characteristics of Hindustan, London, 1837, vol. II, p. 247.

⁹ At the end of the eighteenth century ‘Bengal was’, as W. Hastings calls it, ‘at what may be called a distance of two years from London.’ Marshall, P.J., Problems of Empire, London, 1968, p. 29; K.N. Chaudhuri suggests that the minimum round trip for an East Indiaman, including the turn-around time in Indian posts, was 16 months. Chaudhuri, K.N., The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company, 1660–1760, Cambridge, 1968, pp. 74–77. However, by the mid-nineteenth century the employment of steam ships had reduced it to thirty days. The Lahore Chronicle, 17 05, 1851.

¹⁰ On the contrary, the European population in India was held down by an insalubrious environment which exacted a heavy toll. For the period from 1707 to 1775, 59 per cent of all the Company's servants going out to India died there, many of them in their first year. For one decade, 1747 to 1756 the mortality rate for new arrivals was 74 per cent. See Marshall, P.J., East India Fortunes: The British in Bengal in the Eighteenth Century, Oxford, 1976, p. 254.

¹¹ The following break-down shows that in 1793 more than two-third of the European settlers in Bengal (83 out of 109) comprised skilled workmen. The break-down was: 12 teachers, 11 surgeons, 9 music teachers, 25 cabinet-makers and carpenters, 8 shipwrights, 5 printers, 12 tailors, 4 hair-dressers, 3 jewellers, 2 portrait painters, 2 architects, 2 book-binders, 10 auctioneers, 1 chemist, 1 craver, 1 gunsmith and 1 engraver. European Inhabitants: Bengal Lists 1793–1794, quoted in Holden, Furber, John Company at Work, pp. 256–57.

¹² In fact, Charles Grant, a well-known evangelical and one of the Directors of the Company, had suggested prohibiting the admission of Europeans other than skilled workmen into India. Grant, Charles, Observation on the State of Society, etc., written chiefly in the year 1792, dated 16 08, 1797.

¹³ Bernstein, H.T., Steamboats on the Ganges: An Exploration in the History of India's Modernisation through Science and Technology, Bombay, 1960, p. 182. It was not only in the colonies that ‘Scientific Servicemen’ (members of the armed services), carried out most of the scientific works, but in England also this cadre played a very significant role in the execution of scientific works. See Miller, David Philip, ‘The Revival of Physical sciences In Britain, 1815–1840’, Osiris, vol. 2, 1986, pp. 107–34.

¹⁴ Phillimore, R.H., Historical Records of the Survey of India, Dehradun, 1945, vol. III, p. 369.

¹⁵ The first Surveying School was started by Michael Topping at Guindy (Madras) in 1794. Mathematics and trigonometry were also added to the curriculum of the Hindu College Calcutta and the Calcutta Madrassa. In 1824 a Survey School was opened in Bombay and courses were also added to other schools. For the opening of survey schools in British India see Home Public Proceedings (HPP), 08 24, 1836, no. 14; Home Revenue Proceedings (HRP), 25 09, 1837, no. 8; Public Works Department (Railway) Letters from the Court of Directors [P.W.D. (Rly.) LFC], 16 03, 1853, no. 5.

¹⁶ As for Sikdar's mathematical attainments, Everest claimed that ‘there are few in India, European or native, that could equal Radhanath Sikdar. Even in Europe his attainments ranked high. As a computer he is quite indefatigable and there is no person in any department so thoroughly skillful in the application of the various formulas.’ Phillimore, , op. cit. (14), vol. IV, pp. 340–41, 461.

¹⁷ Ibid., vol III, p. 458.

¹⁸ Of Hussain's credentials Everest said that ‘he has both genius and originality. His conduct is marked by the highest probity, and he is one of the few on whose words I could place entire reliance.’ Ibid.

¹⁹ Graham, M., Journal of A Residence In India, London, 1812, p. 146. William Tennant, a Company chaplain writing between 1796 and 1800, commented that ‘the laborious exactness with which they imitate every feather of a bird, or the smallest fibre on a leaf of a plant, renders them valuable assistant in this department.’ Desmond, R., ‘William Roxburgh's Plants of the Coast of Coromandel’, Hortulus Aliqaundo, vol. 11, 1977, p. 37.

²⁰ Martineau, , op. cit. (5), p. 50.

²¹ Dr Gabriel Baughton, surgeon of the Company's ship Hopewell, is stated to have cured the daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan who had been frightfully burnt by the accidental ignition of her clothes and for whose relief all native skill had failed. Pleased by his services Shah Jahan asked Baughton to demand anything. Instead of enriching himself Baughton preferred to secure commercial benefits for his Company. Another generous doctor, William Hamilton, procured similar privileges for the Company in the same way in 1716 by relieving the Emperor Furrukshere of his secret disease which his own physicians were unable to cure. See Williams, , op. cit. (5), p. 268; Martineau, , op. cit. (5), p. 50. For a descriptive account of Furrukshere's treatment by Hamilton see Diary of Messers Surman and Stephenson During Their Embassy to the Great Mogul, 15 08, 1714 to 14 12, 1717, in Wilson, C.R.Early Annals of the English in Bengal, vol. II, pt. II, pp. xxxiv–xxxvi.; Wheeler, J.T., Early Records of British India, Calcutta, 1878, pp. 177, 184.

²² Davidson, C.J.C., Diary of Travels and Adventures in Upper India, London, 1843, vol. 1, p. 15.

²³ In the seventeenth Century many Indian ‘governors’ had European physicians in their court. The governor of Allahabad, for instance, had one M. Claude Maille of Bourges in his medical service. See Tavernier, J.B., Travels in India, tr. Ball, V., London, 1889, 1, p. 116. The ruler of Golconda (1665) employed a Dutch surgeon, Pitre de Lau, who performed a rare operation upon his employer. Ibid, pp. 301–303. Another in the list was Shaista Khan, the Governor of Bengal (1660), who even had some ‘half-caste’ Portuguese in his service. Ibid, p. 393.

²⁴ The native method of vaccine inoculation against smallpox differed from the European method. ‘They (Indians) took some matter from the pock of a person who had the disease, and put it into a phial. They then dip the point of a needle in this matter, and with it prick the person several times in a circle on the fleshy part of the arm. After the blood is wiped away, they rub some more matter on the part and order the patient to bath in cold water three times a day, and to live on the most cooling thing, such as water melons, cucumbers, ricewater, etc. As soon as the fever comes on, which happens about the fifth or seventh day, the patient is ordered to leave off bathing and the cold diet and to live on milk and sugar. On the second day after the pock was appeared they wash the whole body with cold water for three succeeding days, two or three times each day. When the pock is drying off they sprinkle the patient with rose water.’ Ives, Edward, A Voyage from England to India in the year 1756, London, 1773, p. 54.

²⁵ Bhatnagar, O.P., ‘Small-pox Vaccine—Its Introduction Under Wellesley,’ Indian Historical Quarterly, xxviii, 06 1952, no. 2, pp. 186–89.

²⁶ HPP, 04 25, 1805. These antagonists even declared the vaccine as impure since it came from the cow.

²⁷ Bentinck, 's Minutes, 2 03, 1829, in Philips, C.H., ed., The Correspondence of Lord William Bentinck, Oxford, 1977, pp. 175–76.

²⁸ Martin, R.M., Eastern India, London, 1833–1838, vol. 1, p. 113; vol. II, p. 412.

²⁹ SirTemple, R., James Thomason, Oxford, 1893, pp. 176–77.

³⁰ Dubois, J. A., Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, tr. Beauchamp, H.K., London, 1906, p. xii.

³¹ Howell, A., Education in British India, Prior to 1854 and in 1870–71, Calcutta, 1872, p. 33.

³² Home Public–Letters from the Court of Directors (HP-LFC), 09 29, 1830, no. 39.

³³ The Centenary of the Calcutta Medical College, 1935, p. 12–13. Madhusudan Gupta was earlier a Vaidya Professor of the medical class at the Calcutta Sanksrit College. In March 1835 he was appointed Professor of Medical Science to the new Medical College. HPP, 17 03, 1835, no. 31–32.

³⁴ The Centenary of the Calcutta Medical College, 1935, pp. 12–13.

³⁵ Harrison, J., The Origin and Progress of the Bengal Medical College, Calcutta, n.d, p. 5.

³⁶ The Englishman, 17 11, 1857.

³⁷ Mr Wilberforce Bird, Deputy Governor of Bengal, reported in 1843–1844 that ‘thousands of natives in various districts have been cured by these medical officers; that skilful and difficult operations have been performed by them and that they have been discharging their duties in a manner which merits the highest approbation of the government and the gratitude of the people.’ Harrison, , op. cit. (35).

³⁸ The Madras journal of Literature and Science, 01 1838, no. 18, pp. 265–68.

³⁹ Honigberger, J.M., Thirty-Five Years in the East, Calcutta, 1852, p. 160.

⁴⁰ The Secretary of the Dispensary Committee of Murshidabad attributes ‘the reluctance of natives to avail themselves of the aid of the dispensary to their dislike of our customs and distrust of European medical treatment, and to the opposition of the native practitioners.’ HP-LFC, 1843, no. 8.

⁴¹ The Samachar Darpan conceded that ‘it is certain that a cure is more easily obtained from the English system than the native, but it is exceedingly expensive, and the drugs required are far from cheap, so that the poor in the time of sickness fall into despair.’ The Samachar Darpan, 2 08, 1851.

⁴² Forbes, J., Oriental Memoirs, London, 1813, vol. III, pp. 429–30. Sleeman also informs us that ‘as for the physicians, the natives of India have much more confidence in their own practitioners than in ours, whom they consider too reckless and better adapted to treat diseases in a cold climate. Well-to-do patients often delay resort to the English physicians until they have exhausted all resources of the local hakim or the Vaidya.’ Sleeman, W.H., Rambles and Recollection of An Indian Official, London, 1844, pp. 106–07.

⁴³ HP-LFC, 5 09, 1827, para 20.

⁴⁴ It provided instruction in natural and experimental philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, algebra, etc. Ibid.

⁴⁵ Duff, Alexander's Evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Lords, 3 06, 1853, Parliamentry Papers—House of Lords, 1852–1853.

⁴⁶ HP-LFC, 18 02, 1824.

⁴⁷ Extract from Raja Rammohan Roy's Address to Lord Ahmerst, dated 11 December, 1823, in Trevelyan, C.E., On The Education of the People of India, Calcutta, 1838, pp. 65–71.

⁴⁸ Letter from the General Committee of Public Instruction to the Governor-General, 18 August, 1824; HPP, 5 06, 1829, no. 84.

⁴⁹ HP-LFC, 5 09, 1827, para 6.

⁵⁰ The Court of Directors noted in 1830 that ‘the experiment of establishing seminaries for giving instruction to the people of India of a higher kind than any which they previously possessed has been successful in a degree not merely equal but superior to our most sanguine expectations.’ HP-LFC, 29 09, 1830, no. 39.

⁵¹ Foreign Political Proceedings (FPP), 5 06, 1829, no. 89.

⁵² Trevelyan, , op. cit. (47), pp. 4–9. Although there was some controversy regarding the medium of teaching European science in India and the Orientalists had their own arguments, it does not appear that Indians were, at any stage, deficient in acquiring knowledge through an alien language. On the contrary, a medical institution opened by Elphinstone in Bombay on the principle of teaching science to Indians through the medium of the Marathi language had to be closed down after barely six years when it was found that not a single person had left with qualifications to practice medicine. See Trevelyan, 's Minute, 13 06, 1833, Proceedings of the General Committee of Public Instruction, (PGCPI), vol. 3, pt. 1.

⁵³ In 1839 four native students of the Calcutta Medical College, Bholanath Bose, Dawarkanath Bose, Gopalchunder Seal and Surjitcomar Chuckerbutty went to England where they distinguished themselves in the various branches of medical science. They became Members of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. One of them, Dr Chuckerbutty, by prolonging his stay, was enabled to graduate from the University of London. See Harrison, , op. cit. (35).

⁵⁴ In medical science, for instance, of the fifty students on the roll of the Calcutta Medical College during 1838–1839 only three belonged to the traditional Vaidya or doctor class. All others came from different classes, viz., brahmins, weavers, goldsmiths, etc. The Medical College of Bengal, Calcutta, 1839.

⁵⁵ Extremely obsessed with European learning, their morals, literature and science, Macaulay took little time to announce that the ‘present system tends not to accelerate the progress of truth but to delay the natural death of expiring errors.’ Extract from Macaulay, 's Minute, 2 02, 1835, quoted in Sharp, H., Selections from Educational Records, 1781–1839, Calcutta, 1920, pp. 107–17.

⁵⁶ Extract from a ‘Note on Education’ by Dey, K.M., a native student of the Hooghly College, The Englishman, 22 01, 1852.

⁵⁷ HPP, 24 07, 1847, no. 17. Ishwar Chander Sharma, another student of the same school, also pleaded for the promotion of science education among the Indians through his ‘Note on Vernacular Education’. HPP, 13 02, 1854, no. 105.

⁵⁸ The Hindu Patriot, 6 04, 1854.

⁵⁹ The Morning Chronicle, 22 02, 1854; The Friend of India, 11 12, 1856.

⁶⁰ Lahore Chronicle, 3 02, 1855.

⁶¹ Rajender Lai Mitter observed in 1854 that ‘to enable natives of India to be themselves instrumental in the development of her material welfare, the instruction of the majority must be practical as well as theoretical. It will be an effectual means for the removal of those barriers to progress which have been created by the ancient system of confining the cultivation of industrial art to particular classes, and those the least educated in the community.’ The Morning Chronicle, 22 04, 1854.

⁶² The Englishman, 26 02, 1857.

⁶³ East India Company Steam Navigation Papers, II, p. 763.

⁶⁴ Prinsep, G.A., An Account of the Steam Vessels and of Proceedings Connected with Steam Navigation in British India, Calcutta, 1830, p. 3.

⁶⁵ When Lord Auckland, the Governor-General, visited Lucknow, this vessel was decked out in all its beauty for this Lordship's inspection, see Carey, W.H., The Good Old Days etc., vol. II. p. 18.

⁶⁶ The Calcutta Gazette, 14 08, 1823.

⁶⁷ A petition sent to the House of Commons in this regard from Calcutta had more than 7600 signatures which also included the names of some local dignitaries. See Grindley, R. M., A View of the Present State of the Question as to the Steam Communication with India, London, 1837, p. 20.

⁶⁸ Ibid., p. 7.

⁶⁹ HP-LFC, 3 12, 1828, para, 17–18.

⁷⁰ Bengal Marine Board Proceedings, 25 09, 1834 no. 34. In 1833 the private charge of the Enterprise and the Ganges was 400 rupees per diem, and Rs 200 for the Hooghly and Diana. See Papers on Steam Vessels, p. 216.

⁷¹ The minimum freight rate in 1844 was for measurement goods £6 per ton of 40 cubic feet, and for dead weight goods £14 per ton of 20 cwt. The rate actually bid at auction often went as high as £20 per ton measurement. Robinson, Albert, Account of Some Recent Improvements in the Navigation of the Ganges by Steam Vessels, London, 1848, pp. 26–27.

⁷² Extract from C.E. Trevelyan's Letter, 1 August, 1838, in Report of the Committee on Steam Navigation in India, London, 1838.

⁷³ HPP, 26 01, 1855, no. 59.

⁷⁴ Davidson, E., The Railways of India with an Account of their Rise, Progress and Construction, London, 1868, p. 37.

⁷⁵ Bourne, John, Public Works In India, London, 1856, p. 27.

⁷⁶ Letter dated 14 September, 1844, in Indian Railways As Connected With the Power and Stability of the British Empire in the East, London, 1846, p. 37.

⁷⁷ During the 11 months of 1855 in which the Allahabad Raniganj Line was opened, no less than 617 281 passengers were carried, an amount of traffic quite sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical of the travelling propensities of the natives of India. See Huddleston, G., History of Indian Railways, Calcutta, 1906, pp. 17–18.

⁷⁸ Carey, , op. cit. (65), vol. II, p. 26.

⁷⁹ By the First Electric Telegraph Act of 1854 the Company government claimed its monopoly. No one could make a telegraph without a licence and a licence might even be suspended at any time by a resolution in Council. The Bombay Times And journal of Commerce, 17 01, 1855.

⁸⁰ Gorman, Mel, ‘Sir William O'Shaunghnessy, Lord Dalhousie, and the Establishment of the Telegraphs System in India,’ Technology and Culture, 12, no. 4, 10 1971, pp. 581–601.

⁸¹ The Times, 7 10, 1858, Home Department-Electric Telegraph Proceedings (HETP), 17 12, 1858, no. 7.

⁸² The merchant community of Malwa chiefly engaged in opium trade, for instance, had solicited the extension of electric telegraph communication between Indore and Allahabad, but the request was turned down ruthlessly. HETP, 9 01, 1857, no. 1 & K.W.

⁸³ The Pluto, Diana, Hooghly, Brahampootra, Ganges and Irrawaddy were all Calcutta-built steamboats, fitted with Maudslay engines.

⁸⁴ Carey, , op. cit. (65), vol. II, pp. 26–27.

⁸⁵ She was sent from Bombay during the first Burmese war and then served in the expedition to the Persian Gulf from 1823 to 1826. Her services were again utilized in the China war of 1841–1842, Burmese war of 1852, Persian war of 1856, Mutiny of 1857, China expedition of 1859 and in the Abyssinian and Malta expeditions. Ibid.

⁸⁶ Wadia, R.A., The Bombay Dockyard and the Wadia Master-Builders, Bombay, 1955, pp. 222–223.

⁸⁷ In 1842 a visitor to the Bombay dockyard reported that ‘the fleet of Bombay consisted of 22 war-steamers and 11 iron steamboats for the navigation of the Indus.’ Orlich, L.V., Travels in India, including Sindh and Panjab, tr. Leoyd, H. Evans, London, 1845, vol. 1, p. 33.

⁸⁸ These two young Parsee spent three years in England and learnt new techniques under Mr Finchman, Master Shipwright of the Royal Dockyard at Chatham.

⁸⁹ While the construction of the railway in India was carried out by private European Railway Companies, the establishment of electric telegraph was a government monopoly.

⁹⁰ Engineers and managers of departments, whether engaged in construction or maintenance, received roughly double the pay given in England plus considerable additional allowances.

⁹¹ Shridharni, K., Story of Indian Telegraph: A Century of Progress, P&T Department, New Delhi, 1953, p. 12.

⁹² HETP, 25 02, 1859, no. 11.

⁹³ Robert, , op. cit. (8), vol. II, p. 153.

⁹⁴ In 1846, Dr O'Shaughnessy picked up Nandi to work in the refinery department of the Calcutta Mint. Soon he was elevated to the rank of his ‘Personal Assistant’ and in this capacity Nandy assisted O'Shaughnessy in his scientific experiments.

⁹⁵ Sridharni, , op. cit. (91), p. 15.

⁹⁶ The Board of Directors of the Madras Railway Company conceded in 1853 that ‘natives when properly educated and trained will prove themselves most useful servants in all branches of railway operations.’ PWD(Rly.)LFC, 1854, no. 4.

⁹⁷ PWD(Rly.)LFC, 1854, no. 4.

⁹⁸ Ibid., 1856, no. 12.

⁹⁹ In 1846, it was proposed to send ‘natives’ and East Indian youths to England to be trained as engine drivers and fitters. Reports of the Committee of Engineers on the Practicability of Railway into India, 13 03, 1846.

¹⁰⁰ Davidson, , op. cit. (74), p. 49.

¹⁰¹ Reports and Documents connected with the proceedings of the East India Company in regard to the culture and manufacture of cotton-wool, raw silk and indigo in India (R.D), London, 1836, p. 61.

¹⁰² Ibid., p. 62.

¹⁰³ Remarks of the Governor-General in Council. Ibid.

¹⁰⁴ Bhattacharya, S., ‘Cultural and Social Constraints on Technological Innovation: Some Case Studies’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, iii, no. 3, 09, 1966, pp. 240–67.

¹⁰⁵ In 1817, when the Court of Directors sent gins to the Bombay government, the experiment failed because maladjustment of the machine caused injury to the staple, , op. cit. (104), p. 65. Similarly in 1835, Lord Ellenborough, President of the India Board, regretted that much of Indian cotton was spoilt by ‘the injudicious and inexperienced use of the saw gin.’ Ibid., p. 283.

¹⁰⁶ Royle, J. Forbes, On the Culture and Commerce of Cotton in India and Elsewhere, London, 1851, p. 240; HPP, 18 09, 1832, no. 17.

¹⁰⁷ The cost of an imported American or English gin machine ranges from £40 to £50 and the cheapest machine built on that model in India and fitted with imported saws costs £15.

¹⁰⁸ R.D., op. cit. (101), pp. 8, 111.

¹⁰⁹ Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency, Dharwar, Bombay, 1884, p. 370.

¹¹⁰ The paraphernalia of the filature were so much more costly than the traditional layi or nuttah, rudely fashioned by the village carpenter, that the chassars could not afford them. Bhattacharya, , op. cit. (104), p. 245.

¹¹¹ A fair imitation of the machine which they managed to prepare later ‘had no mechanism for twisting the fibre as they were wound from the cocoon.’ Martin, R.M., The History, Antiquites, Topography, etc., London, 1838, vol. III, pp. 263–64.

¹¹² Bhattacharya, , op. cit. (104), p. 246.

¹¹³ Walker, Alexander, ‘Indian Agriculture’, in Dharampal, Indian Science And Technology in the Eighteenth Century, Delhi, 1971, p. 183. ‘The native plough, generally speaking, weighs about 25 lbs, some were even lighter. The Konkan plough for example, weighs only 20 lbs, while an improved plough will weigh from 30 lbs to 80 lbs.’ Voelcker, J.A., Report on the Improvement of Indian Agriculture, London, 1893, p. 217.

¹¹⁴ Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India, 1928, p. 110.

¹¹⁵ Long, J., Wanderings in India, London, 1859, pp. 351–52.

¹¹⁶ Imperial Gazetter of India, 1908, p. 12.

¹¹⁷ Voelcker, , op. cit. (113), p. 216.

¹¹⁸ Captain Thomas Holcott, ‘On the Drill Husbandry of Southern India’, in Dharampal, , op. cit. (113), p. 211. ‘In Eastern Bengal a wooden plough costs 8 annas only. But Rs 2/- to 4/- may be considered the general range of prices throughout India, while the cheapest improved plough will cost Rs 5/- to 6/-.’ By the end of the nineteenth century the rate of some improved ploughs were as follows: the Duplex, Rs 5/-; the Kaisar, Rs 6/-; the Seebpore, Rs 6/-; the Watts, Rs 7/-; the Saidapet, Rs 8/-; the Hindustan Rs 12/-; Voelcker, , op. cit. (113), pp. 216–17.

¹¹⁹ At Bellary Mr A. Subapathi Mudliar, who sold a number of Swedish ploughs, had to maintain a factory for repair. In another case Mr Subanayagam Mudliar, at Shiyali, had his own repair workshop. Voelcker, , op. cit. (113), p. 218.

¹²⁰ Ibid., p. 229.

¹²¹ Walker, , op. cit. (113), p. 199.

¹²² Ibid., p. 181. Later scientific observations have disproved the idea of deep ploughing in India. Conserving moisture, exposition of weeds and slices to the sun, availability of limestone and Kankar into the depth of the soil and the uncertainty of rainfall, all these factors affirmed the preference of the Indian husbandmen to his wooden-shared plough against deep ploughing. Voelcker, , op. cit. (113), pp. 220–222; The Royal Commission of Agriculture in India, 1928, p. 110.

¹²³ Elsewhere I have discussed in detail the import of new seeds and plants in British India. Sangwan, Satpal, ‘Plant Colonialism 1786–1857’, PIHC, Burdwan, 1983, pp. 414–424.

¹²⁴ HRP, 9 09, 1839, no. 2; 27 July, 1840 nos. 7–9; HR-LFC, 27 November, 1839.

¹²⁵ FPP, 14 11, 1856, no. 222.

¹²⁶ HP-LFC, 8 07, 1829, para. 5.

¹²⁷ FPP, 14 05, 1858, nos. 94–95.

¹²⁸ Mackenna, J., Agriculture in India, Calcutta, 1915, p. 23.

¹²⁹ A contemporary saying thus refers to his (Indian farmer's) attitude: ‘Then comes a gentleman Hakim, to teach us to plough and to weed. I sowed the cotton he gave me, but first I boiled the seed. He likes us humble farmers, and speaks so gracious and wise. As he asks for our manners and customs, I tell him a pack of lies.’

Crook, W., The N.W. Provinces of India, London, 1897, pp. 330–31.

¹³⁰ The success of tea, flax, hemp and Egyptian wheat testifies the positive response of Indian farmer.

¹³¹ Extract from an Official Note from the King of Oudh to the Assistant Resident-in-Charge, 8 September, 1831, FPP, 20 10, 1849, no. 183.

¹³² Letter from I. Paton, Assistant. Resident, to H.T. Prinsep, Secretary to the Governor-General, 8 September, 1831, FPP, 20 10, 1849, no. 182.

¹³³ FPP, 2 08, 1841, no. 109A-112; FPP, 20 09, 1841, no. 83–84; FPP, 25 10, 1841, no. 56–57.

¹³⁴ FPP, 13 03, 1834, no. 18.

¹³⁵ The deed of the engagement submitted by the British Resident at Lucknow to the Company government on behalf of the King contained provisions for the management of that institution under the guarantee of the East India Company. FPP, 1 August, 1836, no. 45.

¹³⁶ Ibid, 1 January, 1840, no. 70.

¹³⁷ The Madras Journal of Literature and Science, 07 1837, no. 16, pp. 56–60.

¹³⁸ There were two medical schools in the Nizam's territories; the Bolurum Medical School and the Chudderghant Medical School. The former was, however, abolished in 1846–1847 under the instruction of the British Resident at Hyderabad. For more details of these schools see FPP, 5 December, 1838, no. 116; FPP 3 January, 1851, no. 108; Foreign Political-Letters from the Court of Directors (FP-LFC), 1848, no. 19.

¹³⁹ Duff, Alexander's Evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Lords, 3 06, 1853, Parliamentary Papers: House of Lords, 1852–1853.

¹⁴⁰ The prizes distributed from the donation of D.N. Thakur were as follows; prizes for the students of the Anatomical Class, 1st prize Rs 400, 2nd Rs 330, 3rd Rs 260, 4th Rs 190 5th Rs 120, 6th Rs 60, total Rs 1350; prizes for the chemical class, 1st Rs 275, 2nd Rs 200, 3rd Rs 125, 4th Rs 50, total Rs 650. HPP, 24 August, 1836, no. 14.

¹⁴¹ Harrison, , op. cit. (35).

¹⁴² Ibid., p. 10.

¹⁴³ HP-LFC, 5 September, 1827, para 27. The sicca rupee was a stamped coin; especially the designation of the silver currency of the Mughals adopted by the East India Company.

¹⁴⁴ Report of the Director of Public Instruction, 1855–1856.

¹⁴⁵ Sleeman, , op. cit. (42).

¹⁴⁶ Singhal, D. P., Modern Indian Society And Culture, New Delhi, 1980, p. 179.

¹⁴⁷ Kabir, Humaun, Mirza Abu Talib: The Russell Lectures, Patna, 16 04, 1961, p. 6.

¹⁴⁸ Talib noted with great admiration that the English carried their passion for machines so far as to equip even their kitchens with all manner of gadgets. Ibid.

¹⁴⁹ Khan, Mirza Abu Talib, The Travels of Mirza Abu Talib Khan in Asia, Africa and Europe during 1800, 1802 and 1803, tr and ed. Stewart, Charles, London, 1810, p. 194.

¹⁵⁰ Mujeeb, Ashraf, Muslim Attitudes towards British Rule and Western Culture in India, Delhi, 1982, p. 104.

¹⁵¹ One of his important books Shams-ul-Hindsa was published in 1823.

¹⁵² Mujeeb, , op. cit. (150).

¹⁵³ Malihabadi, Maulana Abdul Razzaq, Azad ki Kahani Khud Azad ki Zubani, Delhi, 1958, p. 389.

¹⁵⁴ Ibid., p. 390.

¹⁵⁵ The booklet was entitled Arzdasut dar Bab-i-Zarurat Tarvij-i Zaban-i Angrezi-O Ulum Firang (‘An Appeal for the Study and Dissemination of the English language and Western learning.’)

¹⁵⁶ Eastwick, Edward B., ed., The Autobiography of Latfulla, London, 1857, p. 176.

¹⁵⁷ Rahman, A., ‘Science and Cultural Values and Historical Analysis’, New Orient, 12 1960, 1, pp. 19–22.

¹⁵⁸ Panipati, Mohd. Ismail, Maqalat-i-Sir Syed, Lahore, 1962, vol. 1, p. 190, quoted in Habib, I., ‘Institutional Efforts: Popularisation of Science in the Mid-19th Century’, Fundamenta Sceintiae, vol. 6, no. 4, 1985, pp. 299–312.

¹⁵⁹ Heber, R., Narrative of a Journal Through the Upper Provinces of India 1824–1825, London, 1828, vol. 1, pp. 295–96.

¹⁶⁰ One contemporary newspaper observed that ‘the repugnance of the Pundits to European science arise from the foreign and the repulsive character of that science. There is little or no hope for making them instrumental in diffusing European science.’ The Friend of India, 22 07, 1841.

¹⁶¹ Poddar, A., Renaissance in Bengal, p. 221. But there were some others among the natives who ‘looked upon the botanic gardens as rather an extravagent establishment, more ornamental than useful.’ Hooker, J.D., Himalayan Journals, London, 1854, I, pp. 4–5.

¹⁶² Two such societies emerged on the scene in the 1860s; ‘The Bihar Scientific Society’ was founded in 1868 at Muzaffarpur by Imdad Ali, and the ‘Aligarh Scientific Society’ was founded by Syed Ahmed Khan. See Habib, , op. cit. (158).

¹⁶³ Mackenna, , op. cit. (128), p. 7. It was not in the case of implements and practices only but in matters like education the Macaulian belief was that ‘what was reasonable in England must be reasonable in India and would, when forcibly presented, prevail.’ Mayhew, A., The Education of India: A Study of British Educational Policy in India 1855–1920, London, 1926, p. 58.

¹⁶⁴ In 1838 Dr Lush had cautioned the Court over their speculation that ‘since this machine (Whitney's saw gin) had succeeded in America, it would also be a success in India.’ Walton, W., Short History of Cotton, its Culture, Trade and Manufacture in the Bombay Presidency, Bombay, 1880, p. 11.

¹⁶⁵ In the beginning the metalled roads laid by the British in India did not appeal to the natives. The cause was simple. ‘As they (natives) seldom shoed their cattle, they complained that the metalled roads wore out the hooves of their beasts. They, therefore, travelled by the side of the trunk road-rather than on them.’ Kaye, J. W., The Administration of the East India Company: A History of Indian Progress, London, 1853, p. 309. Similarly, the steam oil-mills erected at Dacca proved ‘a perfect failure, due to the aversion of the natives to the oil expressed by these means. They alleged that it contained too much of the bitter principle to be used in their cookery.’ Davidson, , op. cit. (22), vol. 2, p. 113.