Article ID: CBB328224315

Brahmins as scientists and science as Brahmins’ calling: Caste in an Indian scientific research institute (2020)

unapi

The domination of Brahmin and the upper caste scientists have given a Brahmanical identity to science in India. They have been perceived to be the natural inheritors of scientific practice, an assertion reaffirmed by scientists and researchers during my fieldwork in Bangalore, India. Furthermore, merit and passion for doing science was reinscribed and calibrated to denote the alleged castelessness and objectivity of science, obfuscating the deep hierarchies of caste in the practice of science in India. By using ethnographic methods, the article attempts to demonstrate how Indian scientists constructed their identities as casteless beings. The article calls for a public understanding of caste in Indian science, and suggests that public engagement has the potential to democratise the nature of science by addressing the question of exclusion and discrimination in Indian scientific institutions and universities.

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Authors & Contributors
Stott, Clifford
Caterina Guenzi
Harsh, Matthew
Yahya Shamekhi
Justin J. W. Powell
Ingrid H. Tague
Concepts
Social class
Science and society
Universities and colleges
Identity
Caste
Research institutes; research stations
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
Places
India
United States
Great Britain
Germany
Bhilai
Uganda
Institutions
IIT Madras
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