Chandra Kant Raju: Difference between revisions
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Latest revision as of 21:01, 20 July 2026
Chandra Kant Raju | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 7, 1954 Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India |
| Residence | India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | Indian Statistical Institute |
| Known for | History of the calculus; theory of time; critiques of the history of science; relativity |
| Awards | Telesio-Galilei Academy Award (2010) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics, Physics, Computer science, History and philosophy of science |
| Institutions | C-DAC; Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla; Centre for Studies in Civilizations, New Delhi |
Chandra Kant Raju (born March 7, 1954), commonly known as C. K. Raju, is an Indian mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, and historian and philosopher of science. He is known for his work on the history of the calculus and Indian mathematics, his proposal for a physical theory of time, and his critiques of the standard historical narrative of the origins of science and mathematics. He is affiliated with the Centre for Studies in Civilizations in New Delhi.
Biography
Raju was born on March 7, 1954, in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. He received a B.Sc. from the Institute of Science, Bombay (Mumbai) in 1973 and an M.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Mumbai in 1975. He completed his Ph.D. at the Indian Statistical Institute in 1980.
In the early 1980s he served on the faculty of the Department of Statistics at the University of Pune. From 1988 to 1995 he was a Member of Technical Staff at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Pune and Delhi, where, as head of the initial Application Development Group, he played a leading role in the creation of India's first supercomputer, PARAM.
Raju subsequently held a series of research fellowships and academic posts. He was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (1991–93), a Fellow at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, Delhi (1995–98), Project Coordinator at the Indian National Science Academy (1998–2002) for a project on "Madhava and the Origin of the Calculus", and an Affiliated Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (1999–2002). He later served as a Tagore Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, and has held professorships at universities in India and abroad. He has been an Honorary Professor at the Indian Institute of Education and an Emeritus Professor at SGT University.
Scientific contributions
Raju's research spans mathematics, physics, and the history and philosophy of science. In physics, his doctoral and later work addressed the functional differential equations that arise in electrodynamics and the foundations of relativity, and he has proposed a physical theory of time in which the structure of time is regarded as an empirical question rather than a mathematical assumption. This work is developed in his book Time: Towards a Consistent Theory (1994) and elaborated in The Eleven Pictures of Time (2003), which examines the concept of time across religion, science, and culture.
In the history of mathematics, Raju has argued that the calculus originated in India, developed within the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics associated with Madhava, and that this knowledge was transmitted to Europe. He has also examined the epistemological foundations of mathematics, contending that mathematical proof rests on cultural and philosophical assumptions rather than being culturally neutral. These themes are treated in Cultural Foundations of Mathematics (2007).
Raju has been a critic of aspects of the standard history of science, including the attribution of relativity theory, and has proposed alternative frameworks in gravitation. His positions in these areas have been the subject of debate among scholars.
Honors
Raju received the Telesio-Galilei Academy Award in 2010. Other recognitions attributed to him include the Bharatiya Dharohar Award, the MP Ratna, and a fellowship of the Institute of Complex Thought, Lima.
Books
- Time: Towards a Consistent Theory (1994)
- The Eleven Pictures of Time (2003)
- Cultural Foundations of Mathematics (2007)
- Is Science Western in Origin? (2009)
- Euclid and Jesus (2013)