New Delhi, India
Indo-Portuguese History, Science, Technology, and Culture
The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in New Delhi hosted the IXth International Seminar on Indo-Portuguese History, Science, Technology, and Culture (15th to 18th centuries). It was sponsored by the Indian National Commission for History of Science with contributions from the Portuguese Centre of the Embassy of Portugal in New Delhi. The seminar marked a departure from the precedents set at the previous seminars in the series. The thrust of this seminar was in sectors such as science, technology, and material culture viewed from the perspective of interaction, exchange, and assimilation.By Jan Brouwer
The seminar evolved around the themes: Early Interactions; Science and Society; Science and Technology; and Cultural Interaction. In the inaugural session, the convenor of the Organizing Committee, Professor S. Sriramachari, and the leader of the Portuguese delegation, Dr Antonio Hespanha, drew attention to the importance of simultaneous in-depth technological studies and to those studies that place their findings in a wider cultural context. The INSA President, Professor S. Varadarajan, announced the publication of a remarkable book: 'The Rahmani of M.P. Kunhikunhi Malmi', or 'A Traditional Sailing Manual of Lakshadeep'.In the session on Early Interactions, Professor Rosa Maria Perez (University of Lisbon) questioned the conventional way of studying Christianity in Goa, urging that the nature of the cultural encounter of Hinduism and Christianity be rethought.
Professor Jaweed Ashraf's (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) contribution in the session on Crop Introductions and Interactions in Medicine was thought-provoking. He argued that 'nowhere in India the conditions required for plant introductions according to contemporary Indian and European norms could be fulfilled until about the middle of the nineteenth century. It is unreasonable to assume that any European power in India was deeply interested in such introductions for the simple reason that they would not have been in their own economic interests without full imperial economic and administrative consolidation.' His paper for the first time reveals Persian-language Portuguese sources about New World plants in traditional India.
In the session on medicine, the discussions focused on the impact of Dutch, French, and Portuguese emigrants on medicine and medical treatment in sixteenth-century India. A few participants highlighted the interactions and exchange of medical knowledge in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the wider context of Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
Arab poems
The papers in the session on Navigation and Instrumentation were of very high quality. Dr Michel Nieto (Institute Francais d'Etudes arabes de Damas, Damascus) presented the paper 'The Arab Nautical Tradition in the Indian Ocean'. The originality of this contribution lies in the sources used: two Arab poems of 29 and 64 stanzas respectively, which Nieto translated and interpreted not only as a scholar, but also as an avid sailor. To check the contents of the poems which are dated between AD 1802 and AD 1805, Nieto used the 'earth' method of navigation completed by the 'sea and star' method. He also made use of modern astronomical programmes for computers. The poems give valuable information about the extraordinary tradition of Arab navigation and enable us to understand how, three centuries later, this tradition resisted the modern influence of Western navigation.
Dr Lotika Varadarajan (INSA, New Delhi) presented a detailed paper entitled 'Indian Rutters - the Indigenous Tradition'. She concluded that although three predominant sets of maritime tradition existed in the Indian Ocean: the Arab, the Indian, and the Chinese, there was an underlying similarity in approach with regard to direction-finding through azimuthal start charts and ancillary instrumentation and with regard to the determination of latitude on the basis of the altitude of the pole star. It is not clear, given the greater star visibility in the Indian Ocean, whether instruments such as kamal and balisti obviated the use of the compass in these waters. The compass, which indicated direction rather than location, was more useful in a culture like that of Europe in which maritime charts, such as the Portulano, could be utilized as a tool for direction fixation. It may have been this basic similarity which allowed regional schools of navigation to develop.
'Conversion'
The most inspiring session covered theoretical issues, language, food, and architecture. Three contributions provoked a lively debate: Dr Manuel Lobato's (Lisbon University) discussion of European perceptions of Nature and Culture in the Maluku Archipelago (Indonesia) in the early modern period; Dr Bhaskar Mukhopadyaya's (Calcutta) examination of the question of the Other; and Dr Brouwer's (CARIKS, Mysore) on Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Interaction. Dr Mukhopadyaya argued that the question of the cognitive superiority of the West did not determine the parameters of contact or interaction, at least not in Bengal. He focused on the cultural construction of the pre-modern European Other in Bengali culture. He called for a historiographical revision of the conventional wisdom about the Portuguese impact in Bengal. His argument tallied with that of Dr Brouwer who argued that cultural interaction is also an interaction of knowledge systems. Based on the axiom that 'thinking' precedes 'doing', he put forward the idea that acceptance or rejection has its roots in the conceptualizations of the local knowledge system concerned. His analysis of case studies on corruption, Christianity, and conversion in the 16th century Goa showed that knowing the concepts behind practices on either side of the encounter leads to an understanding of the interaction. He questioned the conventional use of the term 'conversion'. The issue then is whether conversion of faith, for whatever reason, is also a conversion of world view and perception. The debate following this paper concluded that more attention should now be paid to the linkages between technology and mentality. Dr Brouwer's plea for serious attention to be given to oral tradition was supported in particular by participants who study navigation and shipbuilding.
In the concluding panel session, Dr Lotika Varadarajan proposed a resolution on the protection of maritime (under water) cultural heritage to be presented to UNESCO. The resolution was passed unanimously.
The seminar was overwhelming in its scope and depth. Almost all contributions were of high quality. The Organizing Committee have to be complimented for having brought together such a large group of original scholars from India, France, Portugal, and Sweden. They have definitely succeeded in opening new vistas on Indo-Portuguese History. The papers will be published by the INSA later this year.
Dr Jan Brouwer is the Director of the Centre for Advanced Research on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CARIKS) in Mysore, India. He can be reached at cariks@bgl.vsnl.net.in.