In the early twentieth century, the vernacular science periodical emerged as a key medium for building science-literate publics in colonial South Asia. This article argues that the Hindi science monthly Vigyan became a discursive laboratory for experiments with language, literary genres, narrative plots, and settings to create culturally grounded science lessons for Hindi readers in the mid-1910s. I focus on the writings of Prem Vallabh Joshi, a pandit, science graduate, and small town teacher, who experimented with distinct literary genres to create a sensibility for science – an experimental temper – amongst Vigyan’s readers. Through his strategic use of scientific experiments in the “history of” a particular branch of knowledge, detective mysteries, and the genre of the fictionalized dialogue, Joshi inducted colonial readers into experimental culture and global scientific modernity. As a reflexive participant in the ongoing confrontation between “Western” science and Hindu śāstra in colonial society, Joshi staged a fictional encounter between the experimental demonstration of the iconic air-pump and the textual authority of śāstra. This article examines the encounter between sastric commitments and scientific sensibilities and their conjoined mobilization in Vigyan in the era of linguistic nationalism. In this colonial vernacular publishing culture, the serial possibilities of the periodical and the history of science itself became critical resources in the ontological confrontations between experimental science and traditional authority.

在 20 世纪初，白话科学期刊成为在殖民地南亚建立具有科学素养的公众的关键媒介。本文认为，印地语科学月刊Vigyan在 1910 年代中期成为了一个话语实验室，用于实验语言、文学体裁、叙事情节和环境，为印地语读者创建以文化为基础的科学课程。我专注于 Prem Vallabh Joshi 的著作，他是一位专家、理科毕业生和小镇教师，他尝试了不同的文学体裁，以在Vigyan中创造一种对科学的敏感性——一种实验性的脾气的读者。通过在特定知识分支的“历史”、侦探奥秘和虚构对话的类型中战略性地使用科学实验，乔希将殖民地读者引入了实验文化和全球科学现代性。作为殖民社会中“西方”科学与印度教śāstra持续对抗的反思参与者，乔希上演了标志性气泵的实验演示与śāstra文本权威之间的虚构相遇。本文探讨了圣训承诺与科学敏感性之间的相遇以及它们在Vigyan中的联合动员在语言民族主义时代。在这种殖民白话出版文化中，期刊和科学史本身的系列可能性成为实验科学与传统权威之间本体论对抗的关键资源。