The View from Pusa: Postcolonial Perspectives on Indian Agricultural Science

• In Event: Decolonizing Science: Where Have We Gotten To? - I

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of knowledge production in Pusa, India’s central agricultural research hub. Pusa is a center in transition, a collective trying to reconfigure itself to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving Indian population and economy, while also attempting to cement India’s national position within global agricultural markets. It is a place steeped in colonial and postcolonial history, yet decidedly modern, showcasing the latest in technological advancement. Within the walls of this complex, the existing agricultural knowledge and biological wealth of the country is gathered, preserved, and catalogued, just as new knowledges and technologies are envisioned, produced, and disseminated. This work examines Pusa’s historical and contemporary practices of knowledge production to develop a postcolonial ‘history of the present.’ Herein, Pusa emerges as a local corpus with a deeply political role within India, producing situated, partial, power-laden, sometimes conflicting knowledges that are deeply intertwined with the legacy of colonization. Using a mixed qualitative methodology of archival and interview research, this research examines several sets of practices within Pusa of accumulating agricultural knowledge into physical and/or digital banks. These practices are used to reflect on the co-construction of epistemological, governmental, and economic hegemony at Pusa throughout Indian history, as well as the disruptive implications of new, participatory approaches to knowledge production. This study further motivates research on South-South dynamics of agricultural knowledge production, as well as the complex interplay between science and sovereignty.

Author

• Swati Sureka, National Science Foundation