Abstract
IN the editorial article "Science and Progress in India" in Nature of May 5, p. 525, the history of the development of the present scientific background in India since the end of the eighteenth century is traced along two parallel lines of progress, official and non-official, the origin of the latter being the foundation of the Asiatic Society (now the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal) by Sir William Jones in 1784. The annual address of Dr. Shyam Prasad Mookerjee, president of the Society for the year 1944–45, has now been received, as well as the annual report of the Council. It is pleasing that Dr. Mookerjee, the son of the late Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee, one of the greatest presidents the Society has ever had, should have reached the presidential chair. An interesting point that emerges from Dr. Mookerjee's address is that while official support was given to some aspects of science in India from as early a date as that of the birth of the Asiatic Society, the study of the cultural inheritance of India was left entirely to private non-official effort, both European and Indian, largely under the inspiration and encouragement of the Asiatic Society, until so late a date as 1860. In this year, during the time of Lord Canning, the first Viceroy of India, the Archæological Survey of Northern India was constituted, while in 1862 Cunningham was appointed archaeological surveyor, to become later the first director-general of archæology in India. After Cunningham came a period of stagnation until Lord Curzon reconstituted the Archæological Department under Sir John Marshall. But the study of India's history as represented by ancient documents is still left to unofficial endeavour, organized mainly by the Asiatic Society, to which some official help is given in the form of annual grants towards the cost of study and publication.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. Nature 155, 721–722 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155721e0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155721e0