Eugenics gained Indian popularity as a pseudo-scientific explanation for Hindu decline under colonial rule

Evidence

Eugenics is the ‘science’ of predicting and controlling heredity that was popular at the turn of the twentieth century, in that it was perceived to be an effort at the ‘improvement’ of the human species. … According to Mark Singleton (2007, 125–46), the popularity of eugenics in India can be understood by the place it occupied as a ‘scientific explanation’ for the ‘degeneration’ of Hindu society and colonial subjugation by the British. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1070

Categorization

• DEFINE: Provides the definition of eugenics and its Galtonian origin that frames Note 47’s caste defense.