There's a discussion in Pakistani twitter on whether science is a 'colonial construct.' This statement is too strong, but the fact that racist colonial ideology shrouded itself in scientific legitimacy is an undeniable historical fact:
Charles Darwin, arguably the most influential modern scientist, reproduced the racism and sexism of his time, associating so-called "primitive" people with the state of nature and identifying them with animals. This is the ideological ground of colonialism.
Darwin's cousin Francis Galton coined the term 'eugenics.' He writes, "As Mr. Galton has remarked, if the prudent avoid marriage, whilst the reckless marry, the inferior members tend to supplant the better members of society." Thus, extending the logic to working classes.
In the U.S., white anxieties about racial equality and loss of racial purity grows after slavery ends and scientific racism emerges to reinforce notions of the natural inferiority of non-white, especially black people, in order to justify racial hierarchies and exploitation.
Laws outlawing Black and White marriages or "anti-miscegenation" remained in every state but one south of the Mason-Dixon line as late as 1967. The notion of "miscegenation" or race mixing is an American contribution to the English language.
Now we know that 'race' is not an anatomical feature of modern humans, that genetic differences within any racial group exceed differences between racial groups, that humans can't be divided into distinct races, yet this ideology persists and even finds voice in science journals.
So while science is not a colonial construct, and we should certainly not be anti-science - a particularly dangerous trend in this age of climate catastrophe - we should continue to rigorously examine how racist, sexist and class ideologies rationalize themselves through science.
Just to add, Darwin is more complex a character than this and and even in this quote you can see odd intellectual somersaults in which he is linking Victorian values with the state of nature but against 'savages.' Still, one can see the racism of his age.
The American Anthropological Association statement on race is worth reading: "Ultimately "race" as an ideology about human differences ... It became a strategy for dividing, ranking, and controlling colonized people used by colonial powers everywhere." americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA…
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The #MunawarFaruqui case highlights how colonial era blasphemy laws (295-A) connect India and Pakistan in ways that no simplistic narrative of secular India vs. Islamic Pakistan adequately captures. livelaw.in/columns/munawa…
Postcolonial reforms of Pakistan's laws of course make them much harsher, but what is common in both cases is the link between religion and nationalism. It is nationalism that allows two different religious traditions, Hinduism and Islam, to create the same forms of violence.
A great summary of the history of anti-blasphemy laws in Pakistan by anthropologist Asad Ahmed: herald.dawn.com/news/1154036