The Craving for British Honours Among the Scientists of Colonial India: A Case Study of the Centre-Periphery Relationship in History of Science

The relationship between ‘centres’ of science (or scientific metropolises) and the geographical regions lying at the periphery has been a subject of some interest to historians and sociologists of science. The relationship between Britain and India during the heyday of the British Empire was coloured by the complicating fact that India was a colony of Britain. Although Indian scientists were fully aware that some other countries like Germany might have been ahead of Britain in certain branches of science such as physics and chemistry in the early decades of the twentieth century, there was still a special craving for British honours in India, since such honours would bring additional benefits in the colonial setup. Many of the leading Indian scientists of that era openly expressed the view that nationalistic feelings drove their science, but they still wanted British recognitions for their research. Since the Knighthood was an official honour bestowed by the British Crown, many Indian scientists had an ambivalent attitude towards it. However, the Fellowship of the Royal Society was viewed as recognition by the scientific peers of Britain and it was perhaps the most coveted honour for Indian scientists of that era. It was well known that the FRS election process was not a level playing field for Indian scientists and a few Indian scientists with high international reputation (such as Prafulla Chandra Ray) were never elected FRS even after being nominated repeatedly by their British peers.