This book brings together a number of papers on the theme of ‘Science, Spirituality and the Modernization of India’ which were first presented at a major international conference held in February 2006 in New Delhi. Some of the papers presented at this event have already been published in 2006 in a volume called Science and Spirituality in Modern India. The conference itself was organized under the auspices of the Project on Science and Spirituality in Modern India at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and funded by Global Perspectives in Science and Spirituality (GPSS). The principal collaborators in this conference were Samvad India Foundation, the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and the Indian Council for Philosophical Relations, whose role I gratefully acknowledge.

In this book most of the remaining unpublished papers from the conference have been brought together, along with some new ones. One of the major premises of this exploration of the relationship between science and spirituality in India is that spirituality played a key role in the construction of Indian modernity. The role of science as a modernizing agent in non-Western countries has already been documented. For instance, in both China and Japan a conscious absorption of European science along with other forms of Western knowledge helped create elites who in turn brought major social and political transformations. Though India was no exception to this broader pattern, what makes it somewhat special is that spiritual leaders also played a key role in the modernization of India.