Some tales require a deeper understanding and evaluation to evaluate the magnitude of their affect on individuals’s lives. This is why the Ramnath Goenka Prize has a non-fiction guide class that acknowledges printed work that covers a difficulty that newspapers or tv channels can not try. This award is for books printed in English.
Arun Mohan Sukumar gained the award on this class for Midnight’s Machines: A Political History of Technology in India, which was printed in 2019. In his guide, Sukumar examines how politics in India has led the nation to reject or undertake sure applied sciences. He takes a broad view from 1947 to the current, to see how politics and the political class in India form the best way residents take into consideration know-how.
Sukumar is a PhD candidate on the Fletcher School, Tufts University and a Junior Fellow within the college’s Center for International Law and Governance. He is the Head of Technology Initiatives on the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.
“We often read debates around technology regarding Aadhaar, data breaches and the use of data for surveillance. I wanted to see how politics has affected technology in India; Because politics has affected all aspects of our daily life to a great extent. That is the inspiration behind Midnight Machines,” says Sukumar.
The absence of different books of comparable scale specializing in the affect of politics on know-how was one of many largest challenges for Sukumar whereas writing his guide. “There are some extraordinary books that have analyzed the history of technology, including the early years of independence. At least to my knowledge there are some that look at the impact of politics on technology,” he provides.
Sukumar’s guide seems to be at know-how in its numerous types – area, nuclear, agriculture and ‘civilian’ applied sciences utilized by Indians of their each day lives. “It was a challenge to identify and select the people, moments, timelines and technologies that were critical to building a modern India,” he mentioned.
He needed to depend on authorities data and information reviews, which, he mentioned, are extraordinarily vital to establish a well-liked legend. “I did research later to find out what were the debates that shaped them or what was their contribution in shaping the perception of Indians about technology,” he mentioned.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
