Let there be Light: Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Electricity in Colonial Bengal, 1880–1945

308 Pages·2020·9.061 MB·English

by  Suvobrata Sarkar

Let There Be Light
Social and economic history of science and technology has emerged as a major theme
of interdisciplinary research in South Asian history since the late 1990s. This book
contributes to the field by exploring the correlation between technological knowledge
and industrial performance with a focus on electricity, an emerging technology
during 1880 and 1945. The arrival of electricity necessitated the introduction of new
institutional facilities and with the growth of technological systems, the culture of
entrepreneurship grew – there was demand for trained manpower to handle machines
and need for better educational facilities. Taking a broad view of the subject, the
narrative is built around the historical experiences of the local Bengali-speaking
population in colonial Bengal.
While recent research on science and technology under the colonial rule tends to focus
on elite actors–both European and Indian – it is important to identify people, mostly
Indians, who excelled in the field of technology, without prior academic training in
engineering or science. This monograph brings back focus on the hitherto unexplored
vernacular sources and emphasizes that the history of technology in India is basically
a history of India, the history of its people, and not simply a history of the Indian
techno–scientific tradition as proposed by the literature emerging from the West.
Adopting the social constructionist model, it presents an amalgamation of archival and
Indian language source materials to delineate the diverse nature of the appropriation
of technological ideas into Indian culture.
Suvobrata Sarkar teaches at the Department of History, Rabindra Bharati University,
Kolkata, India. His research looks at the social history of technology in colonial India.
He was nominated an International Scholar of the Society for the History of Technology
for a two-year term, 2016–2017. He is also the recipient of the Maurice Daumas Prize
2019 awarded by the International Committee for the History of Technology.

Let There Be Light
Engineering, Entrepreneurship and
Electricity in Colonial Bengal, 1880–1945
Suvobrata Sarkar
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© Suvobrata Sarkar 2020
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First published 2020
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Contents
List of Figures vi
Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1 Technical Knowledge and Its Institutes 29
2 Entrepreneurship, Industry and Technology 78
3 Electrification: The Shaping of a Technology 115
4 Domesticating Electricity 153
5 Assimilation of Technological Ideas 190
Conclusion 244
Bibliography 259
Index 284
Figures
1.1 Shibpur College Patrika (1902) 42
1.2 Journal of the College of Engineering & Technology (1938) 60
2.1 Howrah–Sheakhalla Light Railway, a dream
project of Rajendra Nath Mookerjee 89
2.2 Manufacture of Soap at Panihati, BCPW 103
3.1 Laying the underground cables of the CESC (1920s) 118
4.1 An article on X-ray by Dhirendra Nath Bandopadhyay 162
4.2 Dey, Sil & Co. – the pioneering Bengali entrepreneurs
in the electrical industry 166
4.3 Bengal Electric Lamp Works, popularly known as Bengal Lamp 171
4.4 Dr B. N. Dey, who prepared an economical electricity
generation and supply scheme 179
5.1 Jogesh Chandra Ray, lecturer of science,
Ravenshaw College 209
5.2 A limerick on the ‘Engineer’ published in the
Bharatbarsha (1917) 213
5.3 Mahajanbandhu, a monthly periodical of the
early twentieth century 216
5.4 An article on the Tata hydro-electric scheme by
Chandra Sekhar Sarkar, Bharatbarsha (1919) 218
5.5 Bijoli, an illustrated Bengali monthly dealing
with electricity and things electrical 220
Preface
LET THERE BE LIGHT is a sacred phrase: It is found in Genesis 1: 3 of the Torah.
There it is mentioned, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The
earth was formless, and darkness prevailed all around. Then God said, ‘Let there be
Light’, and there was light. God saw that light was good and thus separated it from the
darkness. God called the light ‘day’, and the darkness ‘night’. However, now in modern
times, after sunset, another day emerges – night, with its electric lights, is sometimes
brighter than the day! Just imagine what would have been our state of existence without
electricity. Modern industry could not exist without it. The transformation of science
into economic goods is not new. There have been many instances of scientific ideas
transforming into industrial practice since the advent of the Industrial Revolution,
the classic example being the electrical industry.1 What is new is the magnification
of this process, including the shortening of the time span between invention and
application, and the increased reliance of entrepreneurs on knowledge manufactured
in academic institutions.
The significance of the history of technology is realized when technology is
understood not simply as an artefact or technique, but as part of the history of a
culture and of the social and intellectual development of human civilization. There
was a close connection between commercial interests, technological changes, and
government policy in India from the early years of British rule. Western technologies
are significant, Roy Macleod and Deepak Kumar emphasize, not only as ‘tools’,
but also as forms of knowledge, occasionally mentioned as technical education in
the colonial archives.2 From an artefact to a modern machine, a certain amount of
knowledge must be embedded in it. The use of the term ‘techno-science’ in this
book is to explain the application of scientific knowledge (both pure and applied)
for technological solutions, sometimes loosely used in the literature as ‘engineering
sciences’.3 Several new technologies came to India as colonial baggage. However,
Indians were not mere spectators; on numerous occasions they manipulated and
contributed to the domestication of modern technologies. The journals, periodicals,
viii | Let There Be Light
and monographs written in Indian languages represented these incidents. The
Bengali ‘middle-class material’ is essential to understand the problems of cultural and
linguistic translation inevitable in the formation of a distinct Indian modernity in a
non-European context.4 Thus, the use of specific historical material from middle-class
Bengali context is primarily methodological and crucial to trace the psychological
dimension of traditional societies’ response to new technologies of knowledge.
Recently we have witnessed a great deal of interest and discussion in academic as
well as non-academic circles on the problem of how to make India technologically
independent – the official slogan is ‘Make in India’. Along with other social scientists,
historians, especially those engaged with the study of science, technology, and society
at large, have also felt the urge to contribute to the current discussion. While a
student of history is seldom able to prescribe remedies for the present, one may draw
the attention of policy-makers by explaining to them the initiatives already taken by
our forefathers in this regard and the possibilities that lay therein. The interface of
technology, industry, and public policy presents a demanding and important area of
study. This book explores how this interface evolved in the context of colonial Bengal.
It brings out the role of both better-known and less-known individuals in the process
and the impact this interface had on society at large.
Notes
1. Henry Etzkowitz, Andrew Webster, and Peter Healey, ‘Introduction’, in Capitalizing
Knowledge, ed. Henry Etzkowitz, Andrew Webster, and Peter Healey (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1998), 2.
2. Roy Macleod and Deepak Kumar, ‘Introduction’, in Technology and the Raj, ed. Roy
Macleod and Deepak Kumar (New Delhi: Sage, 1995), 15.
3. This term delineates the application of mathematical and physical sciences and the
principles of engineering analysis to professional and creative work for the construction
of structures, machines, equipment, or processes. Daniel Edward Alexander, ‘The
development of engineering education in the United States’, unpublished PhD Thesis,
Washington State University, 1977, 1.
4. Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton
University Press, 2000), 20.
Acknowledgements
This book is a revised version of a doctoral thesis at the Zakir Husain Centre for
Educational Studies (ZHCES), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, and
while writing it I have received endless help and support besides incurring several
academic debts. The largest component of this debt is due to Professor Deepak Kumar,
whose intellectual stamp on this book is so clear that it can hardly escape detention. His
Science and the Raj (2nd Edition, 2006) had been the inspiration which first attracted
me to the history of science and technology in colonial India. I am a beneficiary of
his style of academic training, which combines rigorous archival research with total
intellectual freedom. Professor Kumar has extended me such total support, both
emotional and material, that I can unhesitatingly say that without his help the course
of my life would have been very different.
To Professor Smritikumar Sarkar, I am indebted for conversations about the history
of technology in colonial Bengal and generous advice on many other details that go into
the making of a book. Special thanks are due to Professor Suranjan Das, who has read
through an earlier version of this argument and has always offered valuable words of
encouragement. Stimulating discussions with Professor Ranjan Chakrabarti provided
me with invaluable insights. I am also grateful to Professor Ross Bassett, Professor Arun
Bandopadhyay, Professor Sujata Mukherjee, and Professor Raj Sekhar Basu for their
valuable suggestions and help in developing the theme for the book. Many thanks to
Dr Prakash Kumar for his constant encouragement and consistent confidence in the
project. Professor Tirthankar Roy was generous with his time and advice.
I must acknowledge my debts to Professor Suchibrata Sen, Professor Chhanda
Chatterjee, Professor Sandip Basu Sarbadhikary, Professor Bipasha Raha, Professor Syed
Ejaz Hussain, Dr Sangeeta Dasgupta, Dr Arpita Sen, Dr Shouvik Mukhopadhyay, and
Dr Subhayu Chattopadhyay at Visva-Bharati and Professor Dhruv Raina at Jawaharlal
Nehru University. From all of them, I have learnt much which I have used here.
At Rabindra Bharati University I found amazingly supportive colleagues who created
a fertile environment for the development of my ideas. I thank Professor Hitendra
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Kumar Patel, Professor Anuradha Kayal, Professor Ashis Kumar Das, Professor Susnata
Das, Dr Ajanta Biswas, and Mr Sk Ali Abbas Mamud for their enthusiasm about my
work. Professor Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty and Dr Sahara Ahmed offered thought-
provoking conversations and enthusiastic support. Initial ideas for this project were
nurtured at the University of Burdwan where I was fortunate to work with Professor
Arabinda Samanta, Professor Achintya Kumar Dutta, Dr Sudit Krishna Kumar, Dr
Malabika Ray, Dr Aparajita Dhar, Dr Binata Sarkar, Dr Rajarshi Chakrabarty, and
Professor Syed Tanveer Nasreen.
I am also indebted to Professor Chittabrata Palit, Professor Arnab Rai Choudhuri,
Professor Mahua Sarkar, Professor Sutapa Chatterjee Sarkar, Professor Samir Kumar
Saha, Professor S Irfan Habib, Professor Rup Kumar Barman, Dr Madhumita
Mazumdar, Dr John Mathew, Dr Jayanta Bhattacharya, Dr B Eswara Rao, Dr John
Bosco Lourdusamy, Mr Dhrub Kumar Singh, Dr Madhumita Saha, Dr Y Srinivasa
Rao, Dr Sambit Mallick, Dr Radha Gayathri, Dr Aparajith Ramnath, and late
Professor Srilata Chatterjee for showing a keen interest in my work and for constant
encouragement. Dr Neelam Kumar had been extremely encouraging about this project
and had patiently provided me with much-needed support.
Sections of the research had been presented at seminars in the Annual Meeting of the
Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), National University of Singapore; Bern
University, Switzerland; Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi; Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and Guwahati; Bankura University, West Bengal;
and Itihas Academy Dhaka, Bangladesh. The opportunity that the organizers provided
to share ideas and the comments of fellow participants are gratefully acknowledged.
Special thanks are due to Dr David N Lucsko, Dr George Wilkenfeld, Dr Christiane
Berth, and Dr Yovanna Pineda.
My research would not have been possible without the generous financial support
provided by various institutions. Initially, it was funded by the University Grants
Commission (UGC) – as the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (RJNF) which enabled
me to complete my Ph.D. thesis. A timely grant from the Charles Wallace (India) Trust
and the Indian Council of Historical Research’s (ICHR) Foreign Travel Grant enabled
me to do some follow-up research. I would especially like to thank Mr Richard Alford,
Secretary, Charles Wallace (India) Trust, and Dr Antonia Moon, Lead Curator, India
Office Records, British Library, for their guidance and help.
I take this opportunity to thank the librarians and staff of West Bengal State
Archives, National Library, Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Library, Centre for Studies in
Social Sciences Calcutta, Jadavpur University Library, West Bengal State Secretariat
Library, Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture Library, Rabindra Bharati University