CHAIRPERSON
Dr Connor Graham, Asia Research Institute, and Tembusu College, National University of Singapore
ABSTRACT
Dissemination of a scientific theory does follow, often, a circuitous route. It is a widespread notion, supported by eminent scholars that the noted linguist and religious scholar F. Max Müller is responsible for the dissemination of Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), and that this played into the hands of imperial interests. In this talk, I will argue that there were other stakeholders in the process of widespread acceptance of the AIT. In particular, the Brahmo Samaj, a prominent socio-religious reform association in 19th century India, played a major role in the spreading of the AIT: the prominent leaders of Brahmo Samaj, actively or passively, corroborated with Müller in that process. I will discuss the development of affairs during that time and attempt to establish the fact that the development of a scientific theory, AIT in this case, is not a unilateral process, but rather strongly influenced by the socio-political environments of the time.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Subrata Chattopadhyay Banerjee is a doctoral student from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, working on Modern Entangled Intellectual History. Her PhD dissertation is on the topic of “The Origin of the Aryan Invasion Theory: A Study into 19th Century Scientific World”. Her research interests are broadly in the domains of south-asian history, indo-european socio religious-cultural exchange, linguistics research and history of technology in the 19th century. She has published one journal article in Cambridge University Press. She was also affiliated as a Research Fellow in the Wee Kim Wee Centre, Singapore Management University working on the topic of “A Historical Study into the Emergence of Creativity during Cultural Conflict and Integration”. She graduated with Bachelor of Arts from Calcutta University, India and Master of Arts with specialization in Modern History from Rabindra Bharati University, India, in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
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