ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Bernal Meets Brecht: Art, Politics, and the People’s Science Movement in Kerala

• In Event: Citizen Science in a Global Perspective

English Abstract

This paper examines how the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP), a pioneering People’s Science Movement in India that began in the 1960s, reshaped the meaning and practice of science by drawing simultaneously on J. D. Bernal’s vision of socially committed science and the critical aesthetics of Brechtian theatre. The KSSP developed a mode of science activism that moved beyond conventional science communication to engage multiple knowledge worlds—scientific, cultural, political, and vernacular. By integrating popular theatre, street performances, and community education, the KSSP forged a confluence of Bernalist ideas and Brechtian theatre that bridged the “two cultures” (Snow 1959), using artistic forms to question scientific authority and provoke reflection on power, inequality, and the social consequences of scientific decisions.

At a time of widening distrust in expertise and renewed debate about the place of science in public life, the significance of such movements becomes clearer. Steven Shapin’s observation that modern science rests on a rigid distinction between scientists and laypersons—where the public is largely expected to assent to expert judgment (Shapin 1990)—offers a critical lens for understanding why the democratization of scientific knowledge remains urgent today. Drawing on archival materials, interviews, and cultural texts, the paper demonstrates how the convergence of Bernalism, Brechtian practice, and critiques of expert–lay divides enabled the KSSP to develop participatory, culturally grounded modes of scientific engagement that reimagined what science could be in postcolonial India.

Author

• Albert Varghese, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras)