Historiographical experience of young chemist: an essay “India before and after sepoy mutiny” by Prafullachandra Ray

An essay India before and after Mutiny by Prafullachandra Ray has been analyzed in the context of development of historical consciousness during the Bengal Renaissance Nineteenth – early Twentieth centuries. The historiographical experience of young Indian student-chemist is presented as one of symbolic response to intellectual imperative to develop the study of Indian history by Indians. P. Ray tried to describe the history of contemporaneity for India in its political and economic along with social-cultural dimensions. The essay takes place of outstanding research against the backdrop of a lack of Indian indigenous works on XVIII–XIXth century colonization and   the   rule by the British. Based on the broad circle of sources, P. Ray presented many-sided and ambiguous process and content of history ‘before and after’ Mutiny (1857) to explain Indian modernization.

He describes how and in what way the British conquest and government had changed the course of India’s history. On the one hand, Indians were excluded from the power and administration, and the burden of military and economic expenses was placed on them. On the other hand, the import of modern Western institutions and economic forms had created not only danger   to   welfare of Indian population (poverty, starvation etc.), but also the broad advantages in economy (development of both industry and agriculture in India), education and modern science as well as in political sphere (development of national consciousness and the creation of political nation). All the problems and failures in colonial condition are not canceled the positive moving of India in the Modern world. P. Ray raises an idea of economical, intellectual and   cultural   development of compatriots and perspective idea of taking responsibility for their country through the future participation in government.

1. Ray, Prafulla Chandra. Life and Experiences of Bengali Chemist. L., Kegan Paul, Tru bner & Co. 1932. 557 p.

2. Mukherjee, Hirendranath. Foreword to the Rammohun Library Edition. Ray Prafullachandra. India: Before and after Mutiny. Ed. by R.K. Jha and R. Bhatt. New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 2012. P. v–viii.

3. Dasgupta, Subrata. Awakening: The Story of the Bengal Renaissance. Noida: Random House Publishers, 2011. 481 p.

4. Dasgupta, Subrata. The Bengal Renaissance: Identity and Creativity from Rammohun Roy to Rabindranath Tagore. Delhi: Permanent Black, 2012. 280 p.

5. Rashkovsky, Eugene B. Scientific Knowledge, Institutional Science, the Intelellectuals in the East, 19th – 20th Centuries, Moscow: Nauka, 1990. 202 р. (in Russian).

6. Lourdusamy, J. Science and National Consciousness in Bengal: 1870–1930. Madras: Orient Blackswan, 2004. 257 p.

7. Mallick, Sambit. Democratizing Scientific Knowledge through Building Scientific Institutions in Nineteenth Century India: the Sociology of Science Perspective. Current Science. Vol. 90, № 8, 25 April 2006. P. 1138–1145.

8. Das Gupta, Uma (Ed.) Science and Modern India: An Institutional History. C. 1784–1947. Delhi, etc.: Pearson Education India, 2011. 1232 p.

9. Alayev, L. B. Hindu Attitude to Time and Historical Memory (To the Question of Peculiarities of the Indian Civilization). Vestnik Instituta vostokovedenija RAN. 2018. № 6. P. 31–40.

10. Kopf, David. British Orientalism and Bengal Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969. 324 p.

11. Alayev, L. B. Historiography of Indian History. Moscow: Institut vostokovedenija RAN, 2013. 427 p.

12. Banerjea, Krishna Mohun. On the Nature and Importance of Historical Studies. Awakening in Bengal in the Early Nineteenth Century. Selected Documents. Ed. by G. Chattopadhyay Calcutta: Progressive Publishers, 1965. P. 1–23.

13. Banerjee, Surendranath. The Study of Indian History. Nationalism in Asia and Africa. Ed. with an Introd. by Elie Kedourie. N. Y., Cleavland, L., 1970. P. 225–244.

14. Mukherjee, Bimala Prasad. History. Studies in the Bengal Renaissance. Ed. by A. Gupta. Calcutta: Jadavpur University, 1958. P. 360–385.

15. Zachariah, Benjamin. The Chemistry of a Bengali Life. Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray in His Times and Spaces. Beyond Representation: Colonial and Postcolonial Constructions of Indian Identity. Ed. by Crispin Bates. Oxford University Press, 2006. P. 322–352.

16. Chakrabarti, Pratik. ‘Science and Swadeshi: The Establishment and Growth of the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works, 1893– 1947’. Science and Modern India: An Institutional History. C. 1784–1947. Ed. by Uma Das Gupta. Delhi, etc.: Pearson Education India, 2011. P. 117–142.

17. Chakravorty, Animesh. ‘The Chemical Researches of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray’. Indian Journal of History of Science, 2014. 49.4. p. 361–370.

18. Ray, Prafulla Chandra. Bengali Brain and its Misuse. Russian translation by T. G. Skorokhodova. Voprosy filosofii. 2022. № 1. P. 172–185.

19. Ray, Prafulla Chandra. India: Before and after Mutiny. Ed. by R. K. Jha and R. Bhatt. New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. 2012. 114 p.