Majoritarian Nationalism – And Rational Thinking, Scientific Spirit
By
Ram Puniyani, New Age Islam
13 March
2024
While Our Constitution Mandates The Promotion
Of Scientific Temper, The Present Regime In Matters Of Policy-Making Is
Bypassing The Rational Approach Not Only In Science Research And Education But
Also In Matters Related To Social Policies.
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Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty/The Wire
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With Hindu
Nationalist BJP in the saddle of power from the last one decade there has been
a deliberate promotion of a pattern of policy making in education, which is
based more on faith and glorification of those aspects of the past which are
not verified by reason. As such, the Indian past has seen a good development of
rational thought in the past. Charvak contributed to rational philosophy while
Charat and Aryabhata contributed to medicine and astronomy in a very
significant way. What is glorified today are aspects like plastic surgery being
used to plant elephants' heads on Lord Ganesha or Karna being born from the ear
being the example of genetic science. Not to be left behind Aviation technology
is also attributed to ancient glorious past when Pushpak Viman and even
interplanetary travel prevailed. Such claims from mythology being true abound.
Such things
are not only being taught in the schools but they are also determining the
allocation of funds for science and technology research. We saw a huge funding
being coordinated by IIT Delhi for research into Panchgavya. This is a mixture
of five products from Cow: milk, curd, ghee (clarified butter), urine and dung.
This is supposed to be a panacea for treatment of various diseases. The Cow
urine is being promoted separately as being of medicinal use. Even before this
Government came to power in 2014, its parent organization RSS had floated many
organizations to promote the faith based knowledge, through school education.
One
Dinanath Batra, has been heading the RSS outfits, Shiksha Bachao Abhiyan Samiti
and RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas (SSUN) for many decades. His
nine books have been translated into Gujarati and introduced in 42000 schools
in Gujarat. The sampling of Batra’s books gives a good idea of what is being
implemented currently. A quote from one of the sets of books, ‘Tejonmaya
Bharat’, (Radiant Bharat) tells us about one Dr Balkrishna Ganpat Matapurkar
whose research has been inspired by the Mahabharata. As per him from Gandhari’s
womb a huge mass of flesh came out. (Rishi) Dwaipayan Vyas was called. He
observed this hard mass of flesh and then he preserved it in a cold tank with
specific medicines. He then divided the mass of flesh into 100 parts and kept
them separately in 100 tanks full of ghee for two years. After two years, 100
Kauravas were born of it. On reading this, he (Matapurkar) realized that stem
cell technology was part of our heritage. (Page 92-93)
As per him
Indian Rishis (sage) using their Yoga Vidya would attain Divya Drishti (divine
vision). There is no doubt that the invention of television goes back to this…
In Mahabharata, Sanjaya sitting inside a palace in Hastinapur and using his
Divya Shakti (divine power) would give a live telecast of the battle of
Mahabharata… to the blind Dhritrashtra. (Page 64) What we know today as the
motorcar existed during the Vedic period. It was called Anashva Rath. Usually a
Rath (chariot) is pulled by horses but an Anashva Rath means the one that runs
without horses or Yantra-Rath, which is today a motorcar. The Rig Veda refers
to this. (Page 60)
RSS has
also set up a consultative body called Bharatiya Shiksha Niti Ayog (BSNA),
whose policies are guiding Modi’s government to “correct or Indianise” the
national education system. Now organisations like the Indian Council of
Historical Research, National Council for Education, Research and Training
amongst others, have got heads whose qualification is not excellence in their
disciplines but their proximity to ideology of the ruling dispensation.
We recall
one Y. Sudarshan who was appointed as Chief of ICHR. He was out to prove the
Historicity of our great mythological epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. With
this Government in saddle all this bypassing of rational thinking and
scientific methods has become the norm. This Government has been promoting Baba
Ramdev in a big way. We recall how his Coronil, claiming to be a
treatment for Covid was promoted. The Supreme Court has recently given a
verdict whereby Ramdev has been warned not to advertise irrational products and
misleading ads about the modern system of Medicine.
Indian
Science Congress has from last many years been accepting papers which have no
scientific basis and are based on mythology. Pained by this all prominent
scientists came together and issued a statement calling upon the Government to
stop the undermining of scientific methods and thinking. “They point out that
this attitude has been particularly evident in the government's promotion of
unverified or unscientific ideas, exaggeration of ancient Indian knowledge, and
certain responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.” And further the statement “…
emphasizes the need for a united front among scientists, academics, and
policymakers to combat the erosion of scientific integrity and promote
rational, evidence-based discourse in the country.”
While our
Constitution mandates the promotion of scientific temper, the present regime in
matters of policy making is bypassing the rational approach not only in science
research and education but also in matters related to social policies. In New
Education Policy 2020, there is a focus on ‘Indian Knowledge Systems’. This
basically means promotion of faith based understanding of knowledge related to
material and social sciences.
Those
political streams which support the movement for social change towards equality
try to adopt rational and scientific approach to knowledge and social issues,
the major examples being Gautam Buddha, Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar and Nehru in
particular. Throughout Indian history those who want to impose the status quo
of social relations, those who want to maintain the relations of inequality
generally resort to faith based knowledge, take mythology as the gospel truth
and impose it on the society. The communal fundamental streams accept the
technology with great avidity, while they equally dislike the rational thinking
and scientific spirit. Our Constitution emerged from the anti-colonial
struggle; looked at the future policies as guiding light for social change, so
the Constitution had incorporated promotion of scientific spirit as an inherent
part. Today’s regime is opposed to the equality of castes, genders and
religion. No wonder it bypasses this core spirit of the Indian Constitution.
The welcome
statement of these outstanding scientists is a timely urge to restore our path
of social and science policy, founded on reason, on scientific temper.
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Ram Puniyani is president, Centre of Study of
Society and Secularism and has written several books including Communal Politics:
Facts Versus Myths (Sage, 2003), Deconstructing Terrorist Violence (Sage 2015),
Indian Nationalism versus Hindu Nationalism (Pharos 2014) and Caste and
Communalism (Olive 2013).
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/majoritarian-nationalism-rational-scientific-spirit/d/131904
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