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Part of
Translation in Knowledge, Knowledge in Translation
Edited by Rocío G. Sumillera, Jan Surman and Katharina Kühn
[Benjamins Translation Library 154] 2020
► pp. 229–248

Chapter 11
Science writing in Hindi in colonial India

A critical view of the motivations

| Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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.

Keywords: science journalism, science popularization, science writing in Hindi, colonialism and science, Hindi nationalism and science, linguistic nationalism and science
Article outline
  • 1.The background
  • 2.The multifarious motivations
  • 3.Linguistic nationalism
  • 4.Science popularization and nationalism
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.154.11bak
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Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Baksi, Sandipan
2022. Science journalism in Hindi in pre-independence India: A study of Hindi periodicals. The Indian Economic & Social History Review 59:1 ► pp. 95 ff. DOI logo

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