Transcultural Networks and Connectivities: The Circulation of Mathematical Ideas between India and England in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The nineteenth century has been characterised as a period in which mathematics proper acquired a disciplinary and institutional autonomy. This article explores the intertwining of three intersecting worlds of the history of mathematics inasmuch as it engages with historicising the pursuit of novel mathematics, the history of disciplines and, more specifically, that of the British Indological writings on Indian mathematics, and finally, the history of mathematics education in nineteenth century India. But, more importantly, the article is concerned with a class of science and mathematics teaching problems that are taken up by researchers—in other words, science and mathematics teaching problems that lead to scientific and mathematical research. The article argues that over a period of 50 years, a network of scholars crystallised around a discussion on mathematics proper, the history of mathematics and education. This discussion spanned not just nineteenth-century England but India as well, involving scholars from both worlds. This network included Scottish mathematicians, East India Company officials and administrators who went on to constitute the first generation of British Indologists, a group of mathematicians in England referred to as the Analytics, and traditional Indian scholars and mathematics teachers. The focus will be on the concerns and genealogies of investigation that forged this network and sustained it for over half a century.