The Bhabha Effect
Even as we take the developments in
the field of science and technology by way of an illustration, it would be
appropriate to have a quick look at their status in
Let us first look at atomic energy
in
On 12 March 1944 Bhabha wrote to
the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and submitted a proposal to start an institute to
carry out fundamental research in mathematics and physical sciences. Soon,
towards the end of 1945, was inaugurated the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research in Mumbai, in modern thinking first of its kind in the country.
After the Second World War when
atomic energy in advanced countries began to be extensively used for peaceful
purposes, Bhabha immediately recognised its importance in national development.
He had confidence that such a programme could be initiated in
Very rarely does the ideal take a
tangible concrete shape. But the great dream has been fulfilled, and that too
just within the span of a generation.
What was the key-factor that
enabled the success of the atomic programme under the stewardship of Bhabha?
Bhabha had innate confidence in the capacity of the Indian scientists and knew
what exactly they lacked; what they lacked was an institutional support,
perhaps more than institutional support the needed freedom to do things. He
recognized this and built up laboratories around capable and creative
researchers; rather than first build the laboratories and then pack them with
people, he looked for talent wherever it was and promoted it in every respect.
This seems so obvious, but in those days it was not there in this part of the
world; perhaps it is not there even now the way it ought to be there. Regulated
science is a paradox in itself, and it persists.
The Department of Atomic Energy was
set up under the direct charge of the then Prime Minister (Jawaharlal Nehru)
through a Presidential Order in August 1954. He also laid a copy of the
pertinent Resolution on the table of the Lok Sabha on 24 March 1958. The entire
effort rapidly assumed the size of a multi-branching tree planted in Indian
soil, though several ingredients to nourish its growth had come from abroad.
“The Department of Atomic Energy
(DAE) in
Some of the early landmarks were: commissioning
the first Asian research reactor on 4 August 1957; 40 MWt research reactor CIRUS attaining criticality on 10 July 1960; setting up
of the Electronics Corporation in April 1967 for producing electronic systems,
instruments and components. The nucleus that had formed in Mumbai has now
acquired the nature of a vigorous activity embodying practically all the
aspects of the atomic world, and spread all over the country.
On the front of basic research in
particle physics we may take the example of the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research. The experimental high-energy physics group of the Institute has since
the 1960s a long rewarding association with the corresponding group at CERN in
In spite of these glowing
achievements one may quite pertinently ask a question as to what exactly would
these researches mean in totality of the search in physics. Apropos of the New
Physics for the New Century TD Lee and NP Samios reflected to the following
effect: In the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National
Laboratory interaction of quarks and gluons and their reformation into the
hadrons of which we are made will be studied. Enormous scientific advances that
have taken place these past 100 years have given us a new world altogether.
Such studies can bring the reality of the Big Bang closer for examination.
This is all mind-boggling, and one
begins to wonder if we are not creating another myth of matter. The German
philosopher Martin Heidegger asked the basic question: “What is it to be?” Man
the being, as Being, that is the question. The answer will determine man’s
destiny. Earlier he expanded the relevance of human existence. Do we have such
a perspective in our search, or is it simply pragmatism governed by things as
they are? The question is: what it is that actually constitutes the materiality
of matter? The very word “substance” means, according to Chambers, that “which
constitutes anything what it is”, etymologically the support underneath the
physical world. What is substance? Can such a substance be defined for science?
But even if it can be defined, the problem will remain unanswered if that
substance cannot be taken to the laboratory. But an expectation is such that
the problem be defined and solved. Perhaps it a problem best suited for the
Indian mind, but will it take it and solve?
Technology Vision for the India 2020
One of the important offshoots of
Bhabha’s early work is the Space programme in its several facets. An entirely
indigenous effort, it has proved extremely successful, not only in terms of
boosting the morale of the scientific community, but also ploughing back the
effort in making contributions towards the welfare of the society.
In the field of technology
development we may refer to the pragmatic Vision 2020 projected for a certain
kind of science and technology that should be organised in the context of
industrial development in the country. First we may briefly refer to the
Scientific Policy Resolution of 1958 which discerned their role as follows:
“The key to national prosperity, apart from the spirit of the people lies, in
the modern age, in the effective combination of three factors, technology, raw
materials and capital, of which the first is perhaps the most important, since
the creation and adoption of new scientific techniques can, in fact, make up
for a deficiency in natural resources, and reduce the demands on capital.” This
was an out-moded approach and had to be modified. The governmental interference
had to be minimum, if not zero.
This essentially meant that the findings
of science and technology should be converted into meaningful economic and
social gains. The approach followed is through a planned process coupled with
governmental regulations on imports, exports, and licensing of industries.
However, such a centralised planning system creates large gaps between
innovations, industry and users. There is now a trend to promote what is called
the Home Grown Technology. Vision for the India 2020 is a move towards it.
Indian Professionals Abroad
Although during the past several
decades Atomic Energy, Space, Fundamental Research, Applied Sciences as well as
high class Technological Institutions, and the recent glory of the Information
Technology, have come up in a major way in the country, and although the
infrastructural developments have made a sizable progress, yet the entire
system appears to be geared up for an activity which does not seem to have wise
roots in the genuine Indian-ness that can grow more and more creatively and
meaningfully in its authentic cultural context, a culture looking forward to
grow in its richness culturally. This is not to say that we should go back to
the spinning wheel or to cottage wares or to village pushcarts. Strong commerce
and economy are a must for the robust health of the nation. We must be modern
also, if not ultra-modern, capable of setting up large and complex operative
assembly systems, sophisticated and with a degree of academic distinction.
There has to be organisational efficiency coupled with work-discipline. But
this ultra-modernity should not mean adopting life-styles and mannerisms of
something not native to us. We have to have the state-of-the-art; we have to
have aircraft industry, and efficient textile mills, and large petrochemical
complexes, and enlightened management, and banking establishments. The deeper
concern in them all should however be to discover our individuality, our own
organic personality and not a photo-modelled replica of the foreign brand. These
should be an expression of our living spirit. Perhaps that is the most important
task the social worker will have to undertake and execute. Otherwise all the
gains of science that have accrued will prove of no avail; we will not have
fulfilled ourselves.
It is often said that for doing
science in
This has an unfortunate and unhealthy
consequence in our talented experts and specialists rushing abroad to advance
centres, basically in order to satisfy and promote their professional
ambitions. The
Jonathan Thaw’s Study of
Let us take a couple of examples.
The first could be that of information technology and its applications.
In his studies of Asian-Indians in
the Valley, Jonathan Thaw of
The Mantra of Pragmatism
There are some seven thousand
information technology related industries in the Bay Area and these have made
progress essentially by tapping the highly skilled immigrants seeking better
job prospects and opportunities in advanced spheres. It is estimated that
roughly one-fourth of the professionals are Indians who greatly contribute to
business of the region. Their knowledge of English coupled with technical
competence has been the asset towards the promotion of these activities. “In
1988, almost 43 percent of Indian immigrants in the
“What is it,” asks Jonathan Thaw,
“that makes Indians travel halfway around the world to settle in a land that is
economically and culturally poles apart from their home?” Based on the survey
he has carried out, the answer is as follows. “It appears that the primary
motive for moving to the United States is economic: while there are jobs in the
hi-tech industry available in India, moving to the United States offers Indians
better paid jobs and opportunities to build up savings and possibly send money
back to their families in India.” The feeling of alienation from the cultural
roots perhaps comes very little in the entire reckoning.
In the
From a small number of very early
Sikh farmers as migrants to Northern California we have today approximately
30,000 Indians in the
These Indian engineers hailing from
different parts of the country occupy high positions in American
establishments. Indeed, we have co-founders of companies, creators of IC chips,
innovators of hot-mail, presidents, inventors, testing directors, editors-in-chief,
corporate owners, venture capitalists, authors, writers, artists, speakers
drawing on quantum physics and Hindu scriptures while proposing holistic
approach towards health, plant breeders, very successful doctors, scientists,
Nobel winners. And the list could be much longer than that, with each
individual carrying his personal success story. A particular doctor has
performed 40 000 operations and is a celebrity in the profession. If once there
was a boy in Bangalore selling sandwiches after school hours to make some
pocket money and eventually landing in the U.S. with just $250 in his pocket to
revolutionalise world-communication through the digital mail, we also have now
a millionaire who as a child saw his grandmother die of starvation as the family
could not afford even boiled rice and a pinch of salt. The Nobel winner Har
Gobind Khorana was born in a small village
Indian Industry will be Retooled
At the time of the visit of
President Bill Clinton to
There was also a statement by a
high American official indicating that “the Indian industry will be retooled
and much will be sourced in
But perhaps there are much subtler
and deeper issues which need another approach. Can we really call the success
of these brilliant entrepreneurial Indians an Indian success at all? In the
least; at the most debatable perhaps. The same can perhaps be applied even to
the winners of Nobel prizes who hail from the subcontinent. We may include the
names of Har Gobind Khorana, S Chandrasekhar, Abdus Salam and, with a certain
pertinence, Amartya Sen. Their contributions are quite significant in the
respective professions, something which they could not have done by remaining
back home. The ambiance, the academic or even the cultural surroundings that
are required for their kind of work are altogether absent here, which also
means that it is not just the question of facilities in the country. True,
science has its own life-style and manners, and it needs its own greenhouse to
grow and flourish. Yet what is basically important is the over-all attitude
towards things. We have to recognise that,—assuring the availability of rich
tools and the relevant paraphernaliac provisions,—genuine creativity has to be
always incontingent, incontingent of the parametric factors or external
circumstances which at the best can promote only a copyist’s mentality. A
well-prepared and pioneering mind moulds its own eventualities and its own
harmonious accordances, produces its own rich tools and instruments,—as was
done by JC Bose and CV Raman. Essentially we are successful under the white
governance, and that looks sad, ominous. And what about thousands working in
the Arab countries, and working not in very happy conditions? They bring money
home all right, but where are the self-respect and dignity, as if our plumbers
and electricians and welders and mechanics, or even construction engineers are
kind of slaves there? That is the bane of Human Resources Development we have
developed in our psychology.
For whom the Melodious Strains of
Let us therefore look, though very
hurriedly, at another aspect, the present-day psychological build-up of us
Indians. Perhaps in it we may discover the causes why there is no Indian-ness, for
instance, in Indian science, the science that is practised by Indians. Whether
it is in
In the professional activities we
have seen so far, it may be noticed that the roots are really not sufficiently
Indian; yet the soul of the country once in a while seems to be peeping out for
its assertion in a positive way. A welcome degree of readiness is a good asset
to raise the national edifice to imposing heights. We have seen how in the
state-of-the-art fields we can contribute meaningfully and substantially to the
world of knowledge. We may also see another example in the field of art, for
instance, the contribution of the sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar.
About him GN Joshi writes as
follows: “The melodious strains of Ravi Shankar's sitar have carried Indian
music across the seven seas. He has contributed a golden page to the history of
Indian classical music… His sangeet sadhana was as strenuous and gruelling as
the tapasya (penance) done in the olden days by ascetics seeking knowledge in
the ashrams of their gurus. Living with Ustad Allaudin Khan [known in the inner
circle as Baba] and pursuing his study, Ravi Shankar had to undergo rigorous
trials. The Ustad was a difficult master. At times Ravi Shankar was even
subjected to physical punishment. Coming as he did from an affluent and very
highly placed family, it was very difficult for him to bear the hard work and
humiliating treatment.” (Down Melody Lane,
1984) But the rewards have more than compensated for the difficulties he had to
face. When Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar combined their skills at mehfils and
on records, and presented their artistic craftsmanship on the sarod and sitar,
they received tremendous ovations.
Soon in search of wider audiences
they proceeded to Europe and
Ravi Shankar adopted a technique of
presentation different from the old traditional style. This however led to
“polluting the high and chaste standard of presentation” and knowledgeable
critics feared that the purity of ragas was at stake. His experiments of
combining the Eastern and the Western styles, it is said, “will never hold
lastingly together.” But what were the kind of compulsions behind these
experimentations?
In his My Music My Life
Ravi Shankar “is a performer,
composer, teacher and writer—all rolled into one. He has ridden the crest of
popularity for over three decades now while contributing a golden chapter to
the annals of Hindusthani classical music. According to many, he has
single-handedly done more for Indian music than any other musician, so much so
that his time will always be known as the Ravi Shankar Era.” But is that
sufficiently satisfying? Is that all the whole of fulfilment of the authentic
Indian-ness?
Ravi Shankar popularised Indian
music abroad and proved himself to be an excellent cultural ambassador. He “has
written concertos for the legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin, composed for the
flute virtuoso Jean Pierre Rampal, Koto maestro Musumi Miyashita, and Hosan
Yamamoto—master of the Shakuhachi. In 1967, Ravi Shankar appeared with Yehudi
Menuhin in a concert at the United Nations in
“Indian dance and music were
previously unknown in the West,” writes Oliver Craske about the great artist.
But even as an innovator and composer we may have certain reservations in
acknowledging him as somebody who can be world-class for ever. There is skill,
there is professional élan, there is mastery over the art, there are even
creative flights, and in the whole process at times there is the rush of
inspiration and intuition to light up the spirit. But it has to leap into the
world of many-hued original harmony; it has to enter the womb of hush wherefrom
arrives the music of the soul. We cannot say that Ravi Shankar has any access
to that. Perhaps at one time there was a possibility, but that got attenuated
and dimmed by too much of his own externalisation, by coming too much in
contact with the Western world. We do not hear in his music the footfall of the
luminous gods stepping into the world of Time, entering our little rooms and
lighting them with their presence. We yearn to listen to
Some far tune of the immortal
rhapsodist Voice
Some rapture of the all-creating
Bliss,
as Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri would say; but, sadly, we are
disappointed. But this is a disappointment which is ubiquitous, prevailing in
all the walks of our life, science and the arts, be they in