The Rediff Special/Murli Manohar Joshi

'We must unshackle our thinking from the clutches of the West'

From 1952 to 1997, in 45 years, Parliament has not devoted even 45 hours in discussing science and technology. We have never discussed even the science and technology budget. In 1958, this House devoted 5 to 6 hours in discussing the science policy. In 1983, a discussion was held on the technology policy. It is thus heartening that in spite of government apathy, we have been able to make some progress in the field of science.

We have been able to put our own satellites in space and the country is reaping its economic benefits. The space programme has vast commercial possibilities. We can beat those who are in this field for a long time and give them tough competition provided sufficient investment is made in this area. We can sell space time to other countries at much less price. Similarly, we could develop our own cryogenic engines and export them if large investments were made in this sector.

The ballistic missile programme requires large investment. It is the genius of our space and defence scientists which has been able to achieve much more than we provide to them. We cannot stop at Agni, but have to go ahead in the present international context and we must give more resources and weapons to our armed forces. The expenditure on research and development should be considered as investment.

We have taken a U-turn after the Pokhran blast. If we had continued our work, nobody would have dared to look towards our borders with bad intent. The Atomic Energy Act is a worthless law which needs to be amended and discussed in the House. Year after year we are reducing the budget for atomic energy which will prove to be a disaster for our nation. Our R&D expenditure is miserably low, only 0.8 per cent of our GNP, while industrialised countries spend 2 to 3 per cent.

The level of research has also come down and our research papers are not up to international standards. This should be a matter of great concern. We were much better off before Independence. Dr C V Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize. Then there was a gap of almost 50 years. Dr Hargobind Khurana and Dr Chandrashekhar were awarded Nobel Prizes but they worked in the US and most of their scientific work was done abroad. Our scientific work after independence has not earned any Nobel Prize.

Before Independence Professor Satyendra Nath Bose was the only scientist whose name was associated with Einstein. Bose-Einstein statistics are well known. When Bose was young, his research papers were sent abroad. The scientists sent them to Einstein who found them interesting and consented to publish the paper along with his name. Why has that tradition come to an end? I wish to mention the names of Professor Meghnad Saha, Dr Birbal Sahni, Acharya P C Ray and Dr Neelratna Dhar.

We did not have scientists of their stature after Independence. This requires serious thought. The scientists I have mentioned did not look West-wards. They were inspired by the ancient knowledge which was available in the country. It is myth that experimental sciences were born in the West. Our scientific tradition 200 to 250 years ago was much advanced. I would like to quote a sentence from Dr P C Ray about the Royal Society: “As some of you are aware, solemn discussion arose among the foundation members of the Royal Society as to whether a dead fish weighed more than a live one.”

As late as 1662, this was the position of experimental sciences in Europe. Again says Ray: “The wrought-iron pillar close to Qutub near Delhi which is some 1,500 years old; huge iron girders at Puri; the ornamental gates of Somnath and the 24-foot wrought-iron gun at Narwar -- are monuments of a bygone art and bear silent but eloquent testimony to the marvelous metallurgical skill attained by the Hindus.”

Earlier, Ram Vilas Paswan was explaining how the British introduced the railway system to unify this country etc. But the real reason for the poverty and degradation of this country is that the technology of this country was systematically destroyed. It is a myth that the technology came to us from the West. There was nothing in the West called technology before the 17th century. Britain was poor then. They did not know weaving because they did not have cotton. They did not know the difference between wool and cotton. The earliest books on textile industry were published in 1920-25 which narrated the poor state of British industry in the 17th century.

Dr Benzamin Highen reported in 1792 that Indian malleable iron was Rs 1 and 12 annas per maund while the cost of English malleable iron was 5 and 10 shillings per ton. Indian iron was cheaper. The British developed the railway system to facilitate the transport of raw material from India to Britain. About steel technology, from Tanjavur to Srinagar in India, the measurements of iron furnaces was the same. Thousands of years ago, the axial length of a bullock cart had the same measurements throughout the country. I would strongly recommend R C Majumdar and Dadabhai Naoroji to brush up one’s knowledge of Swadeshi.

In 1742, 80,000 people were working in the steel sector in our country. Our production was four times more than the production in England. We could manufacture rustless iron in ancient times. The inoculation of smallpox was performed in Bengal before 1731, which is supposed to be the discovery of Edward Jenner. The details of this are contained in An account of the disease of Bengal-Calcutta dated February 10, 1731 by one Dr Colt, “When they tried to find out the origin of the system of inoculation of Bengal, they came to know that it was contained in an ancient system, the Ayurvedic system originated by Dhanvantri.”

We had sophisticated technology in India. Our spinners were able to spin very thin yarn of 2,425 counts. They were able to spin 29 yards of thread from one grain of cotton and there are 7,000 grains in a pound. These spinners and thousands of potters and other artisans were thrown out of employment to make way for the finished goods manufactured in England. And now we are being taught that nothing will happen in India without technology from the West. This is ridiculous.

I wish to quote from the lecture in Pune on December 29, 1995 by Dr R M Mashelkar: “In the first instance, the technology game has become very complex. Technology will be available to Indian companies only if it fits in with the global scheme of a supplier. If Mark-III technology is available, then we might negotiate for Mark-II and in most cases, we may get Mark-I. This is because India will be looked at, not as a bottomless pit of demand, but as a competitor in the global market. The days of straightforward technology licensing are over. Marketing territory restrictions are being put up. Even technology is being broken into pieces and each part is being made available separately.”

No one gives us technology. We seem to have received technology in soft drinks. Lipsticks and ice-creams. I will give one example. The department of space had constructed a huge tower. For the wheels of this tower, orders were placed to an American company. The firm accepted the order, but later backed out. It is another matter that Indian scientists picked up the challenge and fabricated better wheels. Whatever advancement we have made in atomic energy, space science and information technology, we have made through Swadeshi.

The technology you are talking of bringing into this country is a technology of exploitative system. We must understand that we have to develop our own technologies and we can successfully do this and be ahead of them. Mulayam Singh Yadav had said that English is the biggest obstacle in the development of science and technology. It is true. If we were to teach science and technology in our country in the mother tongue of each region, we will produce very bright scientists. We will then be able to develop the technology which will not be exploitative, but technology with a human face.

I had mentioned that our scientists in the pre-Independence era had full knowledge of the ancient Indian scientific tradition. The contribution made by C V Raman, Satyendra Nath Bose, was an extension of the same tradition. It was Professor Jagdish Chandra Bose who first proved that the inanimate objects also possess consciousness. In 1901, Jagdish Chandra Bose proved that iron, copper and other alloys have consciousness In 1899, he began a comparative study of non-living substances like metals and animals. Experimentally, he found that metals become less sensitive if continuously used, but return to normal after a period of rest. The discovery of the “fatigue of metals” led Bose from the domain of physics to that of physiology.

Physiologists listened with scepticism and doubt to Bose who demonstrated his experiments in the physics section of the British Association at Bradford. In 1901, May 10, he demonstrated all his experiments in England, and concluded with these words: “I have shown you this evening autographic records of the history of stress and strain in the living and the non-living. How similar are the writings! So similar indeed that you cannot tell one apart from the other. Among such phenomena, how can we draw a line of demarcation and say, here the physical ends. And there the physiological begins? Such absolute barriers do not exist.... It was when I came upon the mute witness of these self-made records, and perceived on them one phase of a pervading unity and bears within it all things....”

This is the same what the Vedanta says: Sarvamidam Khalu Brahmam. "... the moth that quivers in the ripples of light, the teeming life upon our earth and the radiant suns that shine above us; it was then that I understood for the first time a little of that message proclaimed by my ancestors on the banks of the Ganges 30 centuries ago. They who see but one, in all the changing manifoldness of this universe, unto them belongs Eternal Truth -- unto none else, unto none else.”

So it should be the aim of science and technology in India to see the eternal truth and to propagate the same for the welfare of entire mankind. We should unshackle our thinking in the domain of science and technology from the clutches of Western thought. This Parliament should give this freedom to the genius and intellectuals of India -- should rid our thinking from the colonial mindset. Let this Parliament provide honour and dignity to indigenous scientific efforts.

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, former Bharatiya Janata Party president, home minister for 13 days, and professor of physics at Allahabad University, delivered this speech during the special session of Parliament.

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