One aspect of this intellectual realisation was the thirst for knowledge. This led to the formation of scientific societies and institutions by the Indians to provide access to modern science. Most of the Indian intelligentsia or the cultural elite felt the need of imparting science education to the Indians for exploring the new horizons of knowledge about nature and life. In contrast, it must be noted that when the British introduced Western education, they did not introduce science and technology in the curriculum. Rather, they focused on literature, law, grammar, etc. In this context, it is worth-mentioning that in 1875, Sir Richard Temple, the then Governor General of Bengal, wrote a letter to Sir John Laird Maire Lawrence, the then Viceroy, on the rising discontent in India. In this, Temple lamented,

But this arises partly from our higher education being too much in the direction of law, public administration and prose literature, where they may possibly imagine, however erroneously, that they may approach to competition with us. … But we shall do more and more to direct their thoughts towards practical science, where they must inevitably feel their utter inferiority to us.

The native intellectuals were quick to take note of this fact and of which they were aware throughout the nineteenth century and even the beginnings of the twentieth century. They had two options before them: the first option was to convince themselves that the best products of modern science were already anticipated by what they considered to be the national philosophy of India, namely, the Vedanta. Such an effort aimed at internalising an alien system of knowledge, on one hand, and, exhibiting rational and empirical significance of the Vedantic thought, which was treated, at best, as ethno-philosophical by Western philosophical world, on the other. It is this concern, which is expressed in the works of Vivekananda, Aurobindo and many others. The second option was to build an indigenous tradition of modern science by establishing scientific institutions for pedagogy and research. The second option is sociologically significant, and deserves to be discussed in detail.

In this context, scientific institutions like Hindu College (1816), Delhi College (1825), the Aligarh Scientific Society (1864), the Bihar Scientific Society (1868), and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (1876) figure the most. These institutions were initiated mostly in the second half of the nineteenth century as a part of the process of not merely popularisng but also democratising scientific knowledge in India by creating opportunities for the Indians to pursue science education.