Popular Science Lecture - 45

A-Satyameva Jayate in Post-Truth India


Venue: Webinar zoom &
Live on YouTube

January 22, 2022
04:00 pm - 06:00 pm

Organised by Tamil Nadu Science Forum

About Program







This is part of its efforts to popularize science to the general public and students who are pursuing science as their career. TNSF attempt to focus on students on higher science as everyone knows that learning of science at college within the curriculum is not enough to acquire holistic knowledge of science at the appropriate time. Hence, to fill the gap between what students are acquiring through the curriculum and what it is required, TNSF is planning its activities on higher science to students who are pursuing higher education.



Abstract
This speech will examine India's turn to post-truth politics. The unique feature of India's post-truth turn is an attempt to erase any distinctions between myths and historical facts that can be backed by evidence and source criticism. The rush to claim the Indus-Valley for the "Vedic Aryans, as the IIT-Kharagpur calendar did recently, is only the tip of the iceberg. The speech will discuss the state support for turning Puranic mythology into historical facts and claim a "scientific" status of such "facts" from within Indic ways of knowing. This enterprise of erasing distinctions between myths and facts is a part of the promotion of Indian Knowledge Systems in the guise of "decolonizing science." The speech will also trace the overlaps between the left-identified postcolonial theory with the Hindu Right's arguments for decolonizing knowledge.

இந்தியாவின் Post-Truth திருப்பத்தின் தனித்துவமான அம்சம், ஆதாரங்கள் மற்றும் ஆதார விமர்சனங்களால் ஆதரிக்கப்படும் புராணங்களுக்கும் வரலாற்று உண்மைகளுக்கும் இடையிலான வேறுபாடுகளை அழிக்கும் முயற்சியாகும்.

SCHEDULE

Time: 04:00 pm to 6:00 pm - January 22, 2022

Virtual meeting starts at 03:45 pm

04:00 pm - 04:15 pm

Introduction

04:16 pm - 05:00 pm

Dr. Meera Nanda
Visiting Faculty, Humanities and Social Sciences
IISER Pune

A-Satyameva Jayate in Post-Truth India

05:01 pm - 05:30 pm

Q & A

Speaker

Dr. Meera Nanda

Dr. Meera Nanda

Dr. Meera Nanda is an Indian writer and historian of science, who has authored several works critiquing the influence of Hindutva, postcolonialism and postmodernism on science, and the flourishing of pseudoscience and Vedic science. She currently is a visiting faculty of humanities and social sciences at IISER Pune.
Nanda was educated in science and philosophy with a PhD in biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a PhD in science studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
She was a John Templeton Foundation Fellow in Religion and Science (2005–2007). In January 2009, she was a Fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Advanced Study, in the Jawaharlal Nehru University for research in Science, Post-Modernism and Culture. She was also a visiting faculty of history and philosophy of science at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali from 2010 to 15 May 2017. She was a visiting faculty member of the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Pune in 2019 and 2020.

Venue

Webinar
Zoom

Call

+91 9176512565

Email us

tamilnadutnsfchennai@gmail.com