History of science should not be coloured with political bias: Dr Joshi

* Former Union HRD Minister and scientist of repute Dr Murli Manohar Joshi calls for a ‘serious effort’ to trace India’s contribution to all branches of Science without any ‘humbug’

By Kartik Lokhande 
He is a scientist with expertise in spectroscopy, first Indian to be elected as fellow of Russian National Academy of Natural Sciences that has 24 Nobel laureates as its members. He has to his credit Doctor of Science (D.Sc. Honoris Causa) conferred upon by four universities namely Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Benaras, and Kurukshetra. In 1999, the Indian Science Congress conferred upon him Jawaharlal Nehru Award. He also has served as Union Minister for Human Resources Development. 

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi

With all these accomplishments to his credit and having gone deeper into the realm of Science, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi is peeved by all the recent controversy over scientific achievements of India. “Instead of discussing healthily about scientific traditions and achievements in ancient India, extreme positions have been taken. We must understand that telling to the world about India’s rich contribution to science is not jingoism. At the same time, it is not correct to confuse mythology with science,” he says. He feels that there has to be proper scientific enquiry and discussion into achievements of ancient India. ‘Serious effort’ is needed to trace India’s contribution to all branches of science and evaluate its impact on society, but without any ‘humbug’, he adds.
In an exclusive interview to ‘The Hitavada’ during his visit to the city on Friday, the scholar-politician made it clear that the history of science should not be ‘coloured’ with ‘political, ideological bias’. “It is Indian tradition to acknowledge what it has learnt from the world. However, is it not justified to expect that the world also should acknowledge what it has learnt from India?” he asks. Why should others deny what India achieved in and contributed to science, he wonders in a contemplative mood.
According to one of the seniormost leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), there are ample evidences of influence of the Indian mind on Western mind. Treated as ‘father of quantum mechanics’, Schrödinger had outlined his metaphysical view as derived from Vedantic philosophy. As far as Pythagoras theorem is concerned, Pythagoras knew only one aspect and Babilonians also knew one aspect. However, Baudhayana had already written about what is known as Pythagoras theorem. “Is it chauvinism to say on the basis of evidence that Indian mind has influenced the Western mind in several branches of science?” he asks.
The problem, according to Dr Joshi, is that most of the scientific achievements are in scriptures in Sanskrit, which is being treated even by the intellectual Indians as a ‘dead’ language. Robert Oppenheimer, treated as father of atom bomb, knew ‘Bhagavad Geeta’ by heart. There were, and are, several Western scientists, who have read Sanskrit scriptures, he says. “I believe that Sanskrit is the best language grammatically and phonetically. The problem in India is that scientists do not learn Sanskrit and scholars of the language do not reach out to science,” observes the man honoured with the degree of ‘Mahamahopadhyay’ by Tirupati Sanskrit Vidyapeetha (Deemed University), and ‘Vidya Vachaspati’ by Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vidyapeetha.
Asked about the current national situation, the former National President of BJP observes that it is time when one must try to remember the teachings of Golwalkar Guruji and his prognosis of Indian situation. Indian concept treats the world as one system while the Western system believes in ‘We and They’ concept. “Guruji used to say that nationalism is not a political concept, but a spirituo-cultural one. Nation is not an artificial construct but an organic system in which diversity is complimentary to each other,” he says. According to him, the problems are arising out of competition, attempts to create economic hegemony are because of lack of spirituality and lack of understanding that the world is ‘one’ system. However, today, laments Dr Joshi, Guruji Golwalkar is a misunderstood or little understood man. 

(Filed on February 13, 2015 and published in The Hitavada CityLine on February 14, 2015)