Kartik Lokhande's blog

* 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 achi...

  By Kartik Lokhande The recent uncalled for controversy over ‘claims’ of existence of aviation in ancient India, as mentioned in the Sanskrit texts, could best be described as against the spirit of Science. In fact, this controversy should be termed as ‘unscientific’. For, curiosity-based pragmatism forms the core of Science. And, Science transcends the barriers of a particular region, country, language, or religion. Interestingly, India is not the only country that is having its share of controversies over its scientific brilliance in ancient period. China, Greece, Iran, Egypt also have had their share. The unfortunate part, for India, is that instead of taking up the tasks of authority-backed preservation of ancient texts and their scientific exploration, the existence of the thought in these ancient texts is being questioned or seen in the light of a language that has been attached to a particular religion. In the process, not only thought but also the opportun...