ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses, in part, the unfolding of the history of Big Science in India. Further, it suggests that the emergence of Big Science required the emergence of new institutions and the concomitant supersession of the university considered as 'the age old site for the production of knowledge.' The phenomenon is not specific to India, though there are elements that are distinctive of nationstates where the scientific and technological research system acquired concrete form in the first decades of the twentieth century. The supersession of the university as the primary center of scientific research is the outcome of a number of processes concerning the production of knowledge. Of these, some relate to the commoditization of scientific knowledge, and others may be visualized as a consequence of the pact signed between institutions of scientific research and the state, and embodied in the entity called defense research. There would certainly be elements in the Indian experience that others share. The dissimilarities arise
from the time lag between the commencement and legitimization of the tradition of modern science in India and Europe. Further, this history is subsequently complicated by India's colonial past. In the pages that follow, we shall document the emergence of the academic research system within the university, and then outside it. In doing so, we shall show how the university system has shown tremendous growth as an examining body, but its status as a site for the production of knowledge has declined.
