A critical overview of the activities of all these scientific institutions shows that both the Aligarh Scientific Society and the Bihar Scientific Society were short-lived. Only Sircar's IACS could manage to survive. This shows how a man of unusual drive and determination Sircar was! The IACS grew from strength to strength, and celebrated its centenary in 1976. As the national institute of science, it remains a monument to the memory of Sircar, who died in 1904. The Association, as visualised by him, was an institution for the masses with full audience participation, where any lover of science could come and work the way it was felt necessary by the scientist. Being a national association created entirely by private donation, the IACS had no government control. But, it met with some resistance. The Hindu orthodoxy thought that the IACS was attacking the traditional Hindu teachings. A large section of the public also felt that this kind of pursuit of abstract science had no meaning for a poor country like India. The cry of the day was Utilitarian Science, but Sircar's answer was: without scientists how can one have science?

Concluding Remarks

As we have discussed, the historical survey indicates that democratization of scientific knowledge in terms of access to modern scientific knowledge, creation of equality of opportunities to do science, etc. in the colonial period began to occur not because of the colonial government but in spite of the colonial government. Intelligentsia, drawn from different religious groups, realized the significance of modern science for material and cultural transformation of India, and attempted to democratize science in their own way by establishing scientific institutions and using the local or vernacular language as the medium of democratization.

Here, I would like to see the building of such scientific institutions by the cultural elite during the colonial period as a part of the process of democratizing scientific knowledge rather than popularizing science. In post-colonial India, the whole responsibility of democratizing science was, by default, taken over by the State. It is due to the fact that the scientific institutions and societies have partly relegated this inescapable task, which they had carried out with enthusiasm and pride during the colonial period as a part of the nationalist struggle against imperialism. Democratization of science in India is an unfinished task even now. As such, modern science is being critiqued from the point of view of environment (genetic engineering research) and human rights. The process of democratization ought to address these questions. Democratization may be institutionalized in the process of science policy making that should be a broad-based, democratic, transparent and participatory process, as there is a Chinese saying: ‘ Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand' .