a brief history of science, part 15 rebirth of science in ... · pdf filea brief history of...

A Brief History of Science, Part 15Rebirth of Science in India

Soumitro Banerjee∗

Introduction

We have seen earlier that India had a greatscientific tradition, created mainly in theSiddhantic period (around 6th century BCto 11th century AD). Indian contribution toscience was focused on astronomy, medicalscience, metallurgy, and branches of math-ematics like arithmetic, algebra, numbertheory, and trigonometry. We have dealtin details with these contributions in anearlier issue (Vol. 17, No. 3, February2015).

We have also seen that, starting fromabout 9th century AD science in Indiadeclined, and after 12th century AD, practi-cally nothing was left (except for the KeralaSchool of Mathematics, which flourishedin the 14th-16th centuries). India lapsedinto a “dark age”. The cultural conditionsprevailing during this medieval period hasstriking similarity with that during theDark Ages in Europe. Beliefs and super-stitions ruled the Indian mind. There wasblind faith in the scriptures, and answersto all questions were sought in the writingsof ancient sages. Casteism was practisedin a virulent form, which relegated a con-siderable section of Indian people — thelower castes — into the wretched life ofuntouchable community. The oppressivecasteism in the Hindu society induced alarge section of the lower caste people to

∗Dr. Banerjee is a Professor at the Indian Instituteof Science Education & Research, and General Secre-tary of Breakthrough Science Society .

embrace Islam. But by then, Islam also hadlost its character of patronage for scienceand was on the way to becoming anotherbastion of blind faith and superstition.Thus, India lost touch with the sciencecreated on its own soil.

In the 17th century, the Europeans —Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British— set foot on Indian soil as traders.Out of these, the British slowly gainedground by utilizing the internal contradic-tions between the Indian rulers, and theBritish East India Company occupied vaststretches of land by defeating the Mughals.The other European powers became limitedto a few pockets like Pondicherry, Goa,Daman, Diu, Chandannagore, etc. Eventhough the East India Company was aprivate enterprise, it represented Britishcolonial interest in the subcontinent. Inorder to perpetuate its rule, the Companyinstalled a postal system, railways, road-ways, courts, tax collection departmentsand other arms of administrative machin-ery.

By 1818, the revenues from India roseto about one third of the total revenues ofthe British government. Such exploitationof the wealth of India required a largemanpower, but the British citizens sta-tioned in India were a mere handful innumber. Thus, the East India Companyhad to install an education system to trainsome Indians to serve the British in variouscapacities of the administrative machinery.

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Statue of Raja Rammohan Roy in Bristol, wherehe spent the last 3 years of his life in aneffort to influence the British parliamentariansto support his reform movement.

One would have expected that they wouldinstall an education system similar to thatin Britain, where science is given dueimportance. But, no. Their intention wasnot really to enlighten the Indian people.The British rulers’ outlook towards educa-tion was to train up a sufficient numberof clerks and lower level administratorswho would help a smooth running of theGovernment machinery. They carefullyavoided dissemination of the modern ideasborn through the European renaissance.For this, the existing model of education— the learning of ancient texts throughthe medium of Sanskrit — suited themfine. By promoting Indian beliefs and socialpractices, British rulers actually tried tofoster traditionalism.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

But through the British, the English lan-guage entered India, which opened a win-dow to the ideas born in the Europeanenlightenment. One of the first Indiansto absorb these ideas and to appreciatetheir importance was Raja Ram Mohan Roy

(1772-1833). He was an extraordinaryscholar, well versed in many languages,and exposed to the highest traditions of theHindu, Muslim and European literature.He realized that the way forward was tousher in the ideas of European enlighten-ment. But that was not what was in theminds of the rulers. So he engaged in astruggle with the British, making a strongcase for a modern scientific education sys-tem.

We get a glimpse of his opinions from aletter he wrote in 1823 to Lord Amherst, thethen Governor General of India. Ram Mo-han expresses his utter dismay that insteadof installing an education system basedon modern science, “we now find that theGovernment are establishing a Sangscritschool under Hindoo Pundits to impartsuch knowledge as is already current inIndia. This Seminary (similar in characterto those which existed in Europe before thetime of Lord Bacon) can only be expected toload the minds of youth with grammaticalniceties and metaphysical distinctions oflittle or no practicable use to the possessorsor to society. The pupils will there acquirewhat was known two thousand years ago,with the addition of vain and empty sub-tleties since produced by speculative men,such as is already commonly taught in allparts of India.”

“If it had been intended to keep theBritish nation in ignorance of real knowl-edge, the Baconian philosophy would nothave been allowed to displace the system ofthe schoolmen, which was the best calcu-lated to perpetuate ignorance. In the samemanner the Sangscrit system of educationwould be the best calculated to keep thiscountry in darkness, if such had been thepolicy of the British Legislature.” He urgedthe government to “promote a more liberaland enlightened system of instruction, em-bracing mathematics, natural philosophy,

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chemistry and anatomy, with other usefulsciences which may be accomplished withthe sum proposed by employing a few gen-tlemen of talents and learning educated inEurope, and providing a college furnishedwith the necessary books, instruments andother apparatus.”

It is to be noted that Ram Mohan was wellaware of the various shades of philosophycurrent in Western thought at that time.Out of these, he wanted the introductionof a particular line of thinking, based onBaconian philosophy (for an exposition, seePart 5 of this series in Vol.16, No. 4,January 2014) which was, at that time,recognized as the philosophical groundingbehind the development of science.

We are fortunate that Ram Mohan suc-ceeded in persuading the British to accepthis views, at least partially. But whatwas installed was a mixture of Sanskritscripture based oriental education and a bitof English literature and arts.

However, Ram Mohan tried to bring insocial reform through a religious reform, bytrying to make the practices of the Hindureligion more humane and rational. Toachieve that, he preached a monotheisticform of religion, called Brahmo Dharma,based on Vedanta. In this we see anapparent contradiction: while Baconianphilosophy urged people to observe thematerial world intently and to derive itslaws by applying inductive logic, Vedantaconsidered the material world as maya orillusion, and urged people to look awayfrom it. Ram Mohan was aware of thiscontradiction, but somehow lived with it.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

In the next stage, the fight was takenup by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891). He was an erudite scholar in San-skrit grammar and literature who earnedfame (and the title Vidyasagar — ocean of

knowledge) at a very young age. He wasalso well versed in English, science, andfamiliar with various schools of philosophi-cal thought of the West. Most importantly,he was completely free of the prejudices ofhis time and was the first representative ofsecular humanism on Indian soil.

Vidyasagar joined the Sanskrit College inCalcutta in 1846 as Assistant Secretary, atthe age of 26. At that time the curriculumcomprised mainly Sanskrit grammar andspecialized in the scholarship of Indian tra-dition, philosophy and religion. He immedi-ately proceeded to prepare a blue-print fordrastic reform of the curriculum, proposingto introduce science and mathematics asdeveloped in the West, and to make Englishcompulsory. The proposal received a hostileresponse from the then Secretary of theCollege, Rasomoy Dutta, who refused toforward it to the Government’s educationdepartment. Vidyasagar resigned from theCollege, and took up writing and publishingindependently.

What did he write on? One of his books,Jeevan Charit, focused on the life strug-gles of scientists like Copernicus, Galileo,Herschel, Newton, Linnaeus, etc., in sim-ple, elegant Bengali language. Anotherone, Bodhodaya, discussed the basics ofzoology, physiology, botany, mathematics,physics, chemistry, geography, etc. Thesebooks were an instant success, as theyintroduced the Bengali readership to thehighest products of the European renais-sance and enlightenment. He also wrotebooks like Varna Parichay as a primary leveltextbook for learning reading and writingBengali.

Meanwhile, a small number of English-men who understood the value of this manprevailed upon the Education Department,and Vidyasagar was brought back to theSanskrit College as Secretary. He imme-diately proceeded to implement his plan of


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Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891)

curricular reform. The majority of Britishfunctionaries of the education departmentwere alarmed. They ordered a review ofthe proposed reform by Mr J R Ballan-tyne, Principal of the Sanskrit College atBenaras, and a prominent oriental scholar.

Mr. Ballantyne visited the SanskritCollege, Calcutta, reviewed the new cur-riculum, and submitted a report to theEducation Department. While he greatlyappreciated the erudition of Vidyasagar, hedid not agree with most of the recommen-dations. In reply, Vidyasagar sent a longrejoinder on 7 September 1853, counteringBallantyne’s arguments one by one. Thishas gone down in history as the famous‘Vidyasagar-Ballantyne debate’.

Ballentyne felt that Vidyasagar wasputting undue importance to the work ofJohn Stuart Mill. Mill had to be taught, butone could do with an abridged version ofhis work, he felt. Vidyasagar did not buythe argument and steadfastly stuck to hispoint that the students should be exposed

to the great thinker’s work in its original.

Ballantyne had argued that along withthe work of other philosophers, the ideal-ist philosopher Bishop Berkeley’s writingsshould also be a part of the curriculum.Vidyasagar’s remark on this point deservesspecial attention: “With regard to BishopBerkeley’s Inquiry, I beg to remark that theintroduction of it as a class-book wouldbeget more mischief than advantage. Forcertain reasons, which it is needless tostate here, we are obliged to continue theteaching of the Vedanta and Sankhya inthe Sanscrit College. That the Vedanta andSankhya are false systems of philosophyis no more a matter of dispute. Thesesystems, false as they are, command un-bound reverence from the Hindus. Whilstteaching these in the Sanscrit course, weshould oppose them by sound philosophyin the English course to counteract theirinfluence. Bishop Berkeley’s Inquiry, whichhas arrived at similar or identical conclu-sions with the Vedanta or Sankhya, andwhich is no more considered in Europeas a sound system of philosophy, willnot serve the purpose. On the contrary,when, by the perusal of that book, theHindu students of Sanscrit will find thatthe theories advanced by the Vedanta andSankhya systems are corroborated by aphilosopher of Europe, their reverence tothese two systems may increase insteadof being diminished. Under these circum-stances, I regret that I cannot agree with Dr.Ballantyne in recommending the adoptionof Bishop Berkeley’s work as a class-book.”

Vidyasagar’s proposal to counter the in-fluence of wrong and obscurantist philoso-phies by sound and modern philosophiesin the English course also met with oppo-sition from Ballantyne, who felt that twodifferent philosophies taught in differentcourses may induce the students to believethat “truth is double”. Vidyasagar retorts:


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“Truth is truth if properly perceived. Tobelieve that “truth is double” is but theeffect of an imperfect perception of truthitself — an effect which I am sure to seeremoved by the improved courses of studieswe have adopted at this institution.”

Thus countering Ballantyne, Vidyasagarproceeded to state clearly his vision re-garding education. “What we require isto extend the benefit of education to themass of people. Let us establish a numberof vernacular schools, let us prepare aseries of vernacular class-books on usefuland instructive subjects, let us raise upa band of men qualified to undertake theresponsible duty of teachers, and the objectis accomplished.”

What did he mean by ‘a band of qualifiedmen’? He says, “They should be perfectmasters of their own language, possess aconsiderable amount of useful informationand be free from the prejudices of theircountry.” · · · “To raise up such a usefulclass of men is the object I have proposed tomyself and to the accomplishment of whichthe whole energy of our Sanscrit Collegeshould be directed. That the studentsof our Sanscrit College, when they shallhave finished their college course will provethemselves men of this stamp we have everyreason to hope.”

Thus we see that he had clearly set outthe task before himself, and defended hisright to proceed along this line. And in this,he succeeded.

Apart from the drastic change in thecurriculum, he brought many other far-reaching changes. At that time, onlyupper caste Hindus from well-to-do familieswere admitted to the Sanskrit College. Hechanged the rules to allow students fromall sections of the society to join the college.

He also took lead in another direction.He travelled, mostly on foot, to far-flungvillages of Bengal, and established hun-

dreds of schools. He also took the firstinitiative to start schools for girls. Theseschools would impart education throughthe mother tongue: “Vernacular Educationon an extensive scale, and on an efficientfooting, is highly desirable, for it is by thismeans alone that the condition of mass ofthe people can be ameliorated.” He alsohad very concrete opinion regarding whatshould be taught in these schools: “Merereading and writing, and a little arithmeticshould not comprise the whole of thiseducation; Geography, History, Biography,Arithmetic, Geometry, Natural Philosophy,Moral Philosophy, Political Economy andPhysiology should be taught to render itcomplete.”

In those days mathematics used to betaught using Bhaskaracharya’s Lilavati (forarithmetic and mensuration) and Vijaganitafor algebra. These books were not writ-ten as textbooks that demand systematicexposition. In fact, Lilavati was writtenas a collection of mathematical puzzles.Vidyasagar demanded introduction of mod-ern mathematics with modern pedagogicaltechniques: “These two works are verymeagre. · · · The examples are very few. Thestudy of mathematics in Sanscrit should bediscontinued. It is not to be understoodfrom this that I undervalue a knowledge ofMathematics as an essential element of acomplete education. Far from it. I wishto substitute the pursuit of it in English,whence in less than half the time nowgiven to it an intelligent student will acquiremore than double the amount of soundinformation that he could obtain by themost perfect acquaintance of all that existsin Sanscrit language in the subject.”

Thus he ensured, firstly, that educationreaches the common people, and secondly,that the students who come up to collegelevel get a truly modern and scientific edu-cation. Other schools and colleges around


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India soon emulated the example, and the‘Vidyasagar model’ took root in the Indianeducation system much to the displeasureof the colonial rulers.

The results flowed surprisingly fast.The decade of 1860-1869 saw the birth

of a band of people who would shape theIndian cultural and political scenario in thelater years. This includes RabindranathTagore, Madan Mohan Malaviya, SwamiVivekananda, Motilal Nehru, AshutoshMukherjee, Lala Lajpat Rai, V S SrinivasaShastri, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,Jagadish Chandra Bose, and PrafullaChandra Ray. They could become whatthey were because of the modern educationthey received in the 1870s and 1880s,which exposed them to the ideas of democ-racy, freedom, and science. That was thevision of Vidyasagar.

The upsurge in science

Two young friends, Jagadish Chandra Boseand Prafulla Chandra Ray, joined the Pres-idency College, Calcutta, in the late 1880s.At that time there was no facility or en-vironment for scientific research in anycollege in India. The two friends took upon

Jagadish Chandra Bose delivering a lecture atthe Royal Society, London.

Acharya P C Ray (1861-1944)

themselves the task of initiating scientificresearch — J C Bose in physics, and PC Ray in chemistry — despite the lackof funding and equipment, and indifferentattitude of the English administrators.

By then Maxwell had shown that elec-tromagnetic waves are possible, and Hertzhad experimentally demonstrated the ex-istence of such waves. Bose started re-search in this area, and soon developed amethod to produce waves of much smallerwavelength than what Hertz had produced(about 5 mm, which we now know to bemicrowaves). Then he developed a tech-nique to detect these waves at a distancefrom the emitter — in fact he was thefirst to use semiconductor material in thedetector. He gave a public demonstration atthe Calcutta Town Hall in 1895, in whichhe ignited gunpowder from a distance. Allthis work was of path-breaking importancein the development of wireless telegraphy.He refused to patent his inventions andmade his discoveries public. The Italianinventor Marconi took advantage of thisknowledge and developed the world’s firstcommercially usable wireless telegraphy.

Bose later turned his attention to botany,and used local expertise to build extremelysensitive instruments for measuring growthof plants and their response to stimuli.


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He was truly a pioneer in scientific in-strumentation. He also built an institutefor scientific research, now called the BoseInstitute.

P C Ray started working in inorganicchemistry, particularly on synthesizingcompounds of mercury. Soon he made anunexpected discovery — that of mercuriousnitrite Hg2(NO3)2. With the rudimentaryequipment at his disposal, he character-ized the new substance, which has turnedout to be correct in the light of moderncrystallographic techniques. This earnedhim accolades from around the world. Hecontinued to work on other nitrites and oncoordination chemistry, published in lead-ing scientific journals including Nature andthe journal of Royal Society of Chemistry.

He trained a band of students who spreadall over India and built the edifice ofchemistry research in the nation. Theyincluded Jnan Chandra Ghosh (Directorof IISc Bangalore and the founding Direc-tor of IIT Kharagpur); Panchanan Niyogi(founding Principal of the Raja ManindraChandra College, Calcutta); Nil Ratan Dhar(who started physical chemistry research inAllahabad University); Priyada Ranjan Ray(Calcutta University); and Biresh ChandraGuha (Founder of biochemical research in

Mahendralal Sarkar (1833–1904)

C V Raman (1888-1970)

India). The eminent indologist SylvainLevy said “his laboratory was the nurseryfrom which issue forth the chemists of newIndia”.

Mahendralal Sarkar, a doctor by profes-sion, realized early on that an importantcomponent on India’s emancipation shouldbe scientific research. But at that timethere was no place to conduct scientificresearch in the country. So he singlehand-edly founded a small scientific institutioncalled the ‘Indian Association for the Culti-vation of Science’ in 1876 that was funded,run, and managed solely by Indians. In-dividuals could join the IACS and coulduse its very meagre facilities to conductscientific research. It also organized publiclectures on scientific topics to disseminatescientific ideas among the people.

In 1907, a young South Indian mannamed C V Raman, then working as a civilservant in Calcutta, noticing the IACS sign-board on a building on Bowbazar Street,simply went in and asked if he couldwork there during his free time. The restis history. He discovered the celebratedRaman Effect in 1928 while working at theIACS, and received the Nobel Prize for it in1930. He worked there from 1907 to 1933.

The University of Calcutta had beenfounded in 1857, but was initially ad-ministered by the British. The progress


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Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (1864-1924)

was slow, with teaching confined to afew arts subjects. Its fortune changedwhen the mathematician and lawyer SirAshutosh Mukherjee took charge as theVice-Chancellor in 1906. During his tenurethe British educational administration lostgrip on the university and threatened tostop its funding. Ashutosh accepted thechallenge, and appealed to the people tosupport the University so that it can satisfythe educational aspirations of the nation.He received generous support from Indiandonors, and proceeded to create sciencedepartments, envisioning these to becomecradles of advanced scientific research andteaching.

Ashutosh Mukherjee had a keen eye forspotting talent. He realized the potentialof C V Raman at least 12 years beforethe discovery of the Raman Effect, and feltthat his employment in the Indian FinanceDepartment was a sheer waste of scientifictalent. So he invited Raman to join theUniversity College of Science. Raman joinedthe University in 1917, and continued hisscientific research at the IACS, where hemade his key discovery.

Two classmates, Satyendra Nath Boseand Maghnad Saha (both students of JC Bose and P C Ray), did their master’sdegrees from the Presidency College inApplied Mathematics in 1915. At that

time Ashutosh Mukherjee was contemplat-ing starting master’s degree in physics. Hespotted their talents and invited both ofthem in 1916 to join Calcutta University aslecturers in the subject of physics. Theytook up the challenge, learned the newadvancements in physics (relativity andquantum mechanics) that was happeningat that time, and started teaching theseat the university. At that time most ofthe scientific literature was in German. Sothey had to learn German and had to readthe original papers in German. In fact,the two young friends were the first in theworld to translate Einstein’s epoch-makingpaper on General Theory of Relativity, andthe English version was published by theCalcutta University in 1920.

Soon they started creating their ownfootprints. While teaching Planck’s deriva-tion of the black-body radiation curve,Bose managed to derive it in an entirelydifferent way, showing that light emittedby a black body would not follow theMaxwell-Boltzmann distribution becauselight quanta are indistinguishable fromeach other. He wrote up the new derivationand sent it to Einstein. Einstein realized

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920)


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The three famous class-mates: Meghnad Saha, Satyendra Nath Bose, and Prashanta ChandraMahalanobis.

the importance of the approach, translatedit into German, and got it published. Inaddition, Einstein worked out the statisticsto be followed by any particle that havesimilar properties. These particles are nowcalled bosons, and the statistics they followis called Bose-Einstein statistics.

Meghnad Saha, on the other hand,started working on ionization of gases athigh temperatures that exist in the stars,and derived an equation that is followed inthermal ionization. The equation is nowcalled the Saha equation.

Another classmate of theirs, PrashantaChandra Mahalanobis, joined the Pres-idency College and started research onstatistics. He later founded the IndianStatistical Institute, which is a premierinstitution for teaching and research onmathematics and statistics even today.

Srinivasa Ramanujan, with very little for-mal training in pure mathematics, startedworking in isolation on areas such as num-ber theory, analysis, infinite series, con-tinued fractions, etc., and soon obtainedresults that later startled mathematicians.In 1913 he started writing to the Englishmathematician G H Hardy. Upon realizinghis extraordinary talent, Hardy arranged for

Ramanujan to travel to Cambridge. Therehe produced important results such asthe Ramanujan Prime, Ramanujan thetafunction, mock theta functions, etc. Theseopened entirely new areas of work andinspired a vast amount of further research.

Thus an age of science was dawning onIndia. There was excitement in the air, andIndia was making its presence felt in theworld of science. The dreams of Rammohanand Vidyasagar were coming true.

Struggle between science andbelief systems

Space for science cannot be created any-where without launching a struggle againstunscientific beliefs and practices. Thedoyens of Indian science did engage inthis struggle, and tried hard to dispel themiasma. Rammohan and Vidyasagar hadto fight against orthodox Hindu fanaticism.While Vidyasagar worked to spread a scien-tific education system, people like AkshayKumar Dutta (1820-1886), and RajendralalMitra (1824-1891) stood by him by spread-ing scientific thought through numerouswritings.

Acharya P C Ray waged an uncompro-mising struggle against casteism and the


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superstitious behaviour and beliefs prevail-ing in the society. Even in the chemistryclasses he would try to dispel unscientificnotions prevailing in his students. Forexample, he would burn a piece of bone inbunsen burner, and then would drop it inhis mouth. Some students would shudder:being a Hindu, which animal’s bone did heconsume? Prafulla Chandra would thenexplain: After it is burnt what remains arejust inorganic compounds calcium carbon-ate and calcium phosphate! Thus he wouldnot only teach chemistry; he would alsoinculcate a scientific bent of mind.

He was mostly successful, but not al-ways. In one of his writings he lamented,“I have been teaching for half a century,and in that period I have told thousandsof students that eclipses do not happen be-cause demons called Rahu and Ketu devourthe sun and the moon, and that eclipsesdo not end when the demons, satisfied bythe worship of the earthlings, release theheavenly bodies. These are just myths,products of pure imagination. When Itell these with scientific explanation, mystudents understand and accept. But onthe day of the eclipse, when people comeout to the streets chanting mantras toplease the demons, these truth-seekers alsojoin them, and throw away their food.”

Meghnad Saha was also very active inpropagating a scientific bent of mind, andwaged a polemical battle with the protag-onists of orthodox Hinduism. In 1938 hegave a lecture at Shantiniketan with thetitle ‘A new philosophy of life’ in which hecriticized various Hindu beliefs and cus-toms. After it was published, there was adeluge of protests from people belonging todevout religious circles, who argued that allideas of modern science can be found in theVedas. Saha then read the Vedas in originalSanskrit, and showed, quoting the shlokas,that this is not true.

Thus we see that most scientists andsocial reformers of that era engaged inpublic dissemination of scientific ideas andin fighting unscientific beliefs. As long asand to the extent this outlook prevailed andguided the scientific community, scienceadvanced in rapid strides.

Unfortunately this phase did not last longand did not embrace all spheres of life.Towards the close of the 19th century, arevivalist trend of thought arose and tookshape in various forms of Hindu religiousmovements that sought to establish anideal and purified Hinduism as the guidingideology in all spheres of life includingscience. Indian nationalism grew in suchan environment in the last quarter of the19th century and at the beginning of the20th century, which was based on reli-gious sentiments and a sense of pride inan imaginary glorious past. Even thoughleaders like Netaji Subhas Chandra Boseand Bhagat Singh opposed it ardently, thedominant trend in the nationalist move-ment remained national pride based onHinduism. As a result, the nationalistmovement failed to achieve unity of differ-ent religious communities, and was besetwith caste and communal prejudices. Evenin meetings of the Indian National Congressthere were separate kitchens for each com-munity, a practice severely criticized byAcharya Prafulla Chandra.

As science’s struggle for a foothold inthe social psyche waned, the Indian re-naissance started losing ground to differentfaith systems. But by then the age ofscience and technology had arrived. Soscience could not be ignored. Thus scienceeducation and research continued, but itsrevolutionary core, the scientific way ofthinking began to be left behind. Sciencebecame reduced to being a mere gateway toa career.

During the days of freedom struggle a


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sense of idealism — fighting against theBritish, taking the country forward — firedthe young community. The scientists ofthat time also viewed science that way.They wanted to serve the country throughscience. They wanted to show the worldthat India can also make her mark inmodern science. After independence, thatnationalistic fervour in doing science dis-appeared. The value system that oncepropelled advancements in science becameineffective and was reduced to an instru-ment for privilege for a few.

While the number of scientific institu-tions have multiplied after independence,while a far larger number of scientistsare working in these organizations, whilethe research facilities have significantly im-proved compared to the pre-independenceera, still we are unable to produce scientists

of eminence comparable to J C Bose, P CRay, C V Raman, M N Saha, S N Bose,S Ramanujan, etc. We have been unableto produce a single Nobel Laureate sinceindependence.

The flame lit by the doyens of the Indianrenaissance has begun to dim. The taskbefore the science movement today is torekindle it and to make it burn brighter sothat it lights up the whole nation freeingthe society of unscientific beliefs and en-couraging people to practice science as away of thinking and a way of life. We nowneed to release a new current of struggle tobuild a society free of oppression of man byman, where the pursuit of science will bemotivated solely by an urge to unravel thelaws of nature and to serve the society. 2

(End of the series)


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