Aparajith Ramnath
Associate Professor
PhD (Imperial College London)
+91.79.61911545
Research Interests: History of science and technology, history of engineers, business history, South Asian history
Aparajith is a historian of science, technology and industry in South Asia. He is the author of The Birth of an Indian Profession: Engineers, Industry, and the State, 1900-47 (Oxford University Press, 2017), which explores how the roles, organisation and work culture of engineers in the subcontinent were transformed during the politically tumultuous interwar years. Aparajith also writes on history and other topics for a general audience. His articles have appeared in the Hindu, Scroll, The Wire, thREAD, and the New Indian Express.
Aparajith studied electrical engineering at BITS Pilani before doing his postgraduate work in the history of science, medicine and technology at Oxford University (MSc) and Imperial College London (PhD). From 2013-17 he was Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode. He has been a Liverpool India Fellow at the University of Liverpool (March-June 2017), a Charles Wallace grant awardee (2014), an an International Scholar of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) (2015-16), and a Sangam House Writing Fellow (2020). In 2018, he received the Young Historian of Science Award from the Indian National Science Academy.
At Ahmedabad University, Aparajith Ramnath holds a joint appointment in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Amrut Mody School of Management.
Aparajith specialises in the history of science and technology in South Asia, and in particular the history of engineers. He also works on the history of business, especially industrial enterprises, in India.
Aparajith's research is guided by three concerns. First, he aims to study the history of technology not just to understand technology, but to throw light on larger historical questions. Second, he is interested not only in the discourse around science and technology but also in the working and professional lives of scientific and technical practitioners. Third, he pays particular attention to transnational linkages and flows in experts, knowledge and materials.
Book
Journal articles
Book reviews
Aparajith has taught or is teaching the following courses:
Aparajith Ramnath, 'Reservoir Gods', in FiftyTwo.in (17 Sep 2021).
Aparajith's articles in The Wire.
Op-ed in The Hindu.
Articles in Scroll.