Workshop On

Doing History of Science and Engineering in India

A Social History Perspective

February 23-24, 2026 Academic Block 1/201, IIT Gandhinagar
08:15 - 08:55 AM

Registration

09:00 - 09:10 AM

Welcome Address

Prof Madhumita Sengupta

Humanities and Social Sciences, IITGN

09:10 - 09:15 AM

Welcome Address

Prof Vinod Chandra

Physics, HoD of HSS

09:20 - 09:35 AM

Address

Prof Vimal Misra

Civil Engineering, Dean R&D

09:40 - 09:50 AM

Address

Prof Neeldhara Mishra

Computer Science and Engineering, IITGN; HoMI Coordinator and Co-organiser

09:50 - 10:05 AM

☕ Tea Break

10:05 - 11:05 AM

Why Study History of Science?

Prof Deepak Kumar

Retd Professor of the History of Science and Education, JNU

Plenary Talks
Moderator: Prof Neeldhara Mishra, Associate Professor, IITGN
11:10 - 12:10 PM

A Perspective on Mathematics in the Sulbasutras

Prof SG Dani

Retd Professor, TIFR, Mumbai; currently with DAE-CEBS, Mumbai

12:15 - 01:15 PM

History of Computing, with Interesting (Social) Bits from Far and Near...

Prof K Gopinath

Retd Professor, IISc, Bangalore; currently Professor at Rishihood University, Guest Professor at IITGN

01:15 - 02:00 PM

🍽️ Lunch

Moderator: Prof Deepak Kumar, Retd Professor of the History of Science and Education, JNU
02:00 - 02:50 PM

Notes on a Historic Floorplan: A Fragmentary History of British India's First Purpose-Built Chemistry Lab

Prof Madhumita Mazumdar

Professor, Dhirubhai Ambani University, Gandhinagar

02:55 - 03:45 PM

The Contested Terrain of Electrification in Colonial Calcutta

Prof Suvobrata Sarkar

Assistant Professor, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata

03:50 - 04:40 PM

The Extraordinary Career of M Visvesvaraya: Reflections on Biography, the History of Engineering, and Social History

Prof Aparajith Ramnath

Associate Professor, Ahmedabad University

04:50 - 05:00 PM

☕ Tea Break

Student Presentations
Moderator: Prof Suvobrata Sarkar, Assistant Professor, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata
05:00 - 05:15 PM

Coding the Nation: A Genealogy of Computing as a Practice in India

Aditya Pandey

Doctoral Fellow, Shiv Nadar University

05:20 - 05:35 PM

Derailing Guard? A Global History of Check-Rails

Tilak Bhardwaj

Doctoral Fellow, IIT Delhi

05:40 - 05:55 PM

Science at the Edge of an Empire: Joseph Dalton Hooker, Charles Darwin, and the Making of Evolutionary Theory

Anup Sharma

Doctoral Fellow, IIT Gandhinagar

06:00 - 06:15 PM

Electrifying a Company Town: Power Infrastructure, Industrial Capital, and Urban Transformation in Jamshedpur

Harsh Kumar

Doctoral Fellow, IIT Gandhinagar

08:30 - 09:00 AM

☕ Tea Break

Moderator: Prof Sharada CV, Assistant Professor, IITGN
09:00 - 09:50 AM

Relationship Between Diseases and Society: A Bioarchaeological Perspective

Prof Veena Mushrif-Tripathy

Associate Professor, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute

09:55 - 10:45 AM

Oral Healthcare and Public Health: Twentieth Century Bengal

Prof Sahara Ahmed

Professor, Rabindra Bharati University

10:50 - 11:40 AM

Girindrasekhar Bose and Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis and the Social History of Science

Prof Arka Chattopadhyay

Associate Professor, IIT Gandhinagar

11:45 - 12:25 PM

Colonial Epidemiology: Insights from Assam

Prof Madhumita Sengupta

Associate Professor, IIT Gandhinagar

12:30 - 01:30 PM

🍽️ Lunch

Moderator: Prof Indranath Sengupta, Professor, IIT Gandhinagar
01:35 - 02:25 PM

Genesis of Zero in Ancient India

Prof Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay

Associate Professor, Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Kolkata

02:30 - 03:20 PM

A Historical Overview of Gravitational Physics in India

Prof Sudipta Sarkar

Professor, IIT Gandhinagar

03:20 - 03:30 PM

☕ Tea Break

Student Presentations
Moderator: Prof Sahara Ahmed, Professor, Rabindra Bharati University
03:35 - 03:50 PM

Tracing the Historicity of the Water Management System in Ancient India: Gleaned Through Archaeological Records

Dr Shikha Rai

Post Doctoral Fellow, IIT Gandhinagar

03:55 - 04:10 PM

River Drought Forcing of the Harappan Metamorphosis

Hiren Solanki

Doctoral Fellow, IIT Gandhinagar

04:15 - 04:30 PM

Spaces of Healing and Control: Colonial Medical Institutions in the Madras Presidency

Abin Joshy V

Doctoral Fellow, JNU

04:35 - 04:50 PM

Laughing Out Science: A Social History of Satirical Literature and Science in Nineteenth-Century Bengal

Anamika Panda

Doctoral Fellow, IISER Mohali

04:55 - 05:10 PM

Negotiating the 'Native Mind': A Social History of Psychoanalysis in India (1922-1950)

Ruchi Sharma

MA Psychology, University of Delhi

05:20 - 05:40 PM

Vote of Thanks