If the eighteenth century was primarily the Age of Reason and the nineteenth the Age of Science, the twentieth is the Age of Technology. Elaborating the interrelationship between reason, science, and technology would only be stressing the obvious. It is by the freeing of the mind from the chains of traditional thinking, by liberating it from the prison house of superstitious beliefs that the eighteenth century set men on a new path of discovery, and inspired them to bold adventure into realms that were undreamt of earlier. Had a patriarch from the times of the Buddha or of the Christ revisited the world in the closing years of the eighteenth century or in the opening decades of the nineteenth, e would have found much of it quite familiar. Since then there has been a major change in the scene; in fact, it is almost a new world. This radical transformation was wrought by the new modes of thought, by the new approach to life and its problems, initiated by such giants as Voltaire and Diderot, Hume and Bentham, Franklin and Paine, Goethe and many others – each a daringly original thinker. Collectively, they made the eighteenth century the Age of Reason, unique and resplendent.
Whether we like it or not, we in India have to enter these new Ages of Reason, Science, and Technology and achieve a drastic transformation of our national scene and society. Suppression by an alien government during the crucial and revolutionary phase in the life of the West has left us far behind in the race. To make good this late start, we have to hurry all the more. To talk of the vanity of material riches is an exercise in futility. How can a rich, varied, and full life be based on abysmal poverty? How can the spirit soar high when the body is half-starved, weak and diseased? Surely our nation was well-fed and well clothed during those periods when it thought boldly, acted nobly, and lived fully. Neither the age-old methods of agriculture, nor industry centred on the cottage, will pull us out of our present subsistence economy. It is only science and technology that can provide a broad base for a full life, a life that is really worth living.
No doubt, with the forging of nuclear weapons, there has been a reaction against science and technology. But are weapons and wars something new? Be it with clubs and axes, bows and arrows, swords and spears, rifles and cannons, men have always gone to war, and they will continue to maim and to kill as long as they are swayed by avarice and hate rather than by love and tolerance. The very fact that science and technology have now placed the ultimate weapon in the hands of men many finally banish war, for the only choice before them now is either to live together or perish together.
Before I proceed to my next point, I should pause here to recall the sage words of Jawaharlal Nehru. “Just as every great invention can be used for good or evil ends,” he said, “the development of science which has advanced humanity so tremendously has also been used for evil purposes. But that is not the fault of science. That is the fault of the human being who uses it for evil purposes, and that is another question.”
The evils of the present age, whatever they be, are not inherent in science and technology, but in the minds of men. The age of reason, which gave birth to science and technology, is as yet only in its bud; if we, in our folly, do not arrest its full flowering, it will yet yield rich fruits by newer insights, greater truths, and may ultimately enable us to know even the secret of life and death. A future Newton or a future Einstein may probe the very heart of the universe and reveal the nature of the eternal forces that go to form the sun, the moon, and the stars, and the milky way and all that lies beyond unto infinity. Those that scoff at this as a wild dream would do well to remember that this new and revolutionary phase in our history has started only recently. If the period since the emergence of man is taken as one day, the ages of science and technology together constitute hardly a few seconds. It is not, then, utterly foolish to despair of them and to talk of the evils which they have produced?
Given proper understanding and direction, science and technology can yield many rich benefits, including the greatest of them all – the emergence of one world. Science and technology know no national bounds; by their very nature they are universal there can be, for instance, no such thing as an American chemistry or a Soviet chemistry; all chemistry is one. So, too, is all technology. And the greater the measure of scientific and technological knowledge that is shared, the greater is the unity between nations. There was a time when we too shared our scientific knowledge and technological know-how with the rest of the world. The concept of zero and the place value of numbers are, for example, our supreme contributions to mathematical science. It is, indeed, these conceptual tools, and these alone, which enabled man think in terms of billions and trillions and to comprehend the vastness of the physical universe. And our contribution to metallurgy, especially to the making of high grade steel, is by no means small. Even in modern times we have given to the scientific world a Ramanujam and Raman, a Bose and a Bhabha. It should, however, be readily admitted that our record in scientific achievement is as yet rather meager. We have to produce many more scientists and inventors before we can reach parity with the more progressive Western nations.
The supreme need for scientific and technological progress is, more than the setting up of national laboratories, the cultivation of the scientific spirit. Taking nothing for granted, questioning everything, probing everything – that in essence is the scientific spirit. It is not given to everyone to become a scientist, but no one can really call himself a modern man unless he is capable of adopting the scientific spirit that the climate necessary for new scientific discovery and invention will be created.
It is sad to admit it, but still one has to admit it in truth, that the scientific spirit is, by and large, absent in us. We still think on traditional lines; we still hug to our bosom old superstitions; we still swear by glories which faded out long, long ago. What is even worse, our science teachers, who should set an example, are letting us down badly. They explain to their students the real reasons for a solar or lunar eclipse, and yet the moment an eclipse is over they take ceremonial bath and offer their thanks for the release of the sun or the moon from the clutches of the phantom demons of Rahu and Ketu. With such superstitions men in charge of our education, how can the scientific spirit grow in our country?
We should not, however, despair of effecting a change. It certainly requires superhuman effort, but it should not be shirked if the nation is to be pulled out of its age-old ruts. Superstitions have to be fought on every front; the scientific spirit has to be fostered by every means. A nation that fails on the scientific front cannot develop industrially, it cannot improve its economy and, what is much worse, it cannot defend its independence and its way of life from either internal disintegration or external aggression. Only the determined cultivation of the scientific spirit can guarantee our freedom and bring us peace and plenty.
In developing our science and technology we have to receive help from whichever quarter it is offered. Neither pride nor prejudice should stand in our way. We should progress with a sense of urgency, for our national integrity and political freedom are threatened. The defense potential of any country is, at present, directly proportional to its industrial capacity, and that, in its turn, is related to its mastery of science and technology. We can, therefore, neglect science and technology only at the peril of everything that is dear to us.
(1965)
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