The Quest for Technical Knowledge: Bengal in the Nineteenth Century

摘要

The diffusion of Western technology under British rule is one of the most important, yet neglected, topics in the history of India. One aspect of that topic is the introduction of Western devices and processes into India: the printing press, steam engine, telegraph, railroad, massive irrigation systems, and electrification, to name a few. These technologies were imported by the British as means of controlling India and exploiting its resources. Another aspect is technical education, the schools and curricula that the British created to train the skilled personnel needed to staff the Public Works Department. Associated with that is the discrimination practiced by recruiting Indians only for subordinate jobs, reserving the higher engineering and administrative positions for Europeans.