History of Science and Technology in The Indian Subcontinent - Colonial Era

Colonial Era

• The armies of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore employed rockets whose gunpowder was packed in metal cylinders instead of paper ones.

• Extent of the railway network in India in 1871; construction had begun in 1856.

• The Indian railways network in 1909.

• Physicist Satyendra Nath Bose is known for his work on the Bose-Einstein statistics during the 1920s.

Early volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica described cartographic charts made by the seafaring Dravidian people. In Encyclopædia Britannica (2008), Stephen Oliver Fought & John F. Guilmartin, Jr. describe the gunpowder technology in 18th century Mysore:

Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. Hyder Ali's son, Tippu Sultan, continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British.

By the end of the 18th century the postal system in the region had reached high levels of efficiency. According to Thomas Broughton, the Maharaja of Jodhpur sent daily offerings of fresh flowers from his capital to Nathadvara (320 km) and they arrived in time for the first religious Darshan at sunrise. Later this system underwent modernization with the establishment of the British Raj. The Post Office Act XVII of 1837 enabled the Governor-General of India to convey messages by post within the territories of the East India Company. Mail was available to some officials without charge, which became a controversial privilege as the years passed. The Indian Post Office service was established on October 1, 1837. The British also constructed a vast railway network in the region for both strategic and commercial reasons.

The British education system, aimed at producing able civil and administrative services candidates, exposed a number of Indians to foreign institutions. Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose (1858–1937), Prafulla Chandra Ray (1861-1944), Satyendra Nath Bose (1894–1974), Meghnad Saha (1893–1956), P. C. Mahalanobis (1893–1972), Sir C. V. Raman (1888–1970), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995), Homi Bhabha (1909–1966), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920), Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971), Har Gobind Khorana (1922–2011), and Harish Chandra (1923–1983) were among the notable scholars of this period.

Extensive interaction between colonial and native sciences was seen during most of the colonial era. Western science came to be associated with the requirements of nation building rather than being viewed entirely as a colonial entity, especially as it continued to fuel necessities from agriculture to commerce. Scientists from India also appeared throughout Europe. By the time of India's independence colonial science had assumed importance within the westernized intelligentsia and establishment.

Further information: For science and technology in the Republic of India refer to Science and technology in the Republic of India. Further information: For science and technology in Pakistan refer to Science and technology in Pakistan.