Archives of the Earth: Fossils, Science and Historical Imaginaries in Twentieth-Century India

• Applicant: Dr. Amelia Bonea
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; History of Science
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423157196

This project explores plant and animal fossils as objects of scientific investigation and historical imagination in twentieth-century India. It documents the local and global contexts that framed efforts to collect, exchange, study and preserve fossils, the wide range of individual and institutional actors, material objects and ideas involved therein, and the ways in which these ‘archives’ of the Earth were used to generate knowledge about the deep past of the natural world and its relation with the human past. Making use of archival repositories in India, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, the US and Japan, it moves beyond the colonizer-colonized dichotomy to investigate the global entanglements of ‘fossil science’ in colonial and post-colonial India and further our knowledge of natural resources exploitation, climate change research and women in science. The study is unique in its attempt to write, for the first time, a history of palaeobotany and palaeontology in twentieth-century India. The research conducted to date has enabled the formulation of an agenda focused particularly on identifying forgotten Indian fossil collections and hidden actors of palaeoscientific knowledge making and institutionalization, among them women, local topographers, collectors and fieldworkers. In this respect, the project also makes a significant contribution to ongoing debates about decolonizing and diversifying the history of science and raises awareness about the neglected state of natural history heritage in the region.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: India, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Advait Jukar; Professor Dr. Ashok Sahni