What Ails Indian Science

Indian Science is currently languishing. Nothing illustrates this better than this chart below.

This chart has been taken from a new book, "Pathology of Modern Indian Science", by Dr Rajiva Bhatnagar, a retired scientist of the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology under the Department of Atomic Energy, which analyses with facts and figures why Indian Science is currently in the doldrums and has been ever since independence. Clearly, over the past two decades while the number of patent applications from China have soared and far outnumber those from any other country including the USA, India has stagnated near the zero mark. 

The book puts the blame for this fairly and squarely on cronyism which started in the British colonial era itself and assumed cancerous proportions after independence. At the root of this cronyism is the selfish ambition of a few of the leaders of science in this country at the time of independence. 

Despite the reluctance of the British, scientific education and research took off with a bang in the initial years of the twentieth century due to the efforts of Jagdish Chandra Bose, Ashutosh Mukherjee and Prafulla Chandra Ray who, imbued with a nationalistic spirit, went to great trouble to not only conduct experiments but also set up institutions and universities which could nurture scientists. Consequently, by the 1920s Indian scientists had made a mark on the international scene and C V Raman became the first Asian scientist to get the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the scattering of light by a transparent medium. Others like Satyen Bose, D.M Bose and Meghnad Saha made lasting contributions to physics which have become part of its fundamental backbone.

However, from the 1930s onwards, cronyism and regionalism began to take hold of the scientists and instead of charting out a path that would lead to the greater expansion of science both in the universities and in the population in general the eminent scientists began to selfishly further their own interests. This was further compounded by the involvement of the Tatas in the development of science under the garb of philanthropy but actually for furthering commercial and financial interests of their own.

Matters deteriorated even further after independence instead of improving. Contrary to the worldwide practice of pursuing scientific research in universities, which results in a diverse and broad base of science through teaching and research, India chose to follow the Soviet model of setting up stand alone research institutions and centres of excellence and concentrated research funds on them to the neglect of the universities. These research institutions in turn were dominated by a few career minded people who themselves did little innovative science and also discouraged others from doing so. 

This resulted in a situation where the more talented researchers chose to leave the country and go abroad. Even those who remained in the country preferred to publish their research in foreign journals and so the discussion and dissemination of science in the country was further debilitated.

This book details all these developments in graphic detail with well researched data and narration of events many of which are not known to the common people. One very interesting revelation is why despite Raman getting the Nobel Prize for the Raman Effect subsequently so named in his honour, very little work on this important scientific discovery was later done in India and most of the later developments and applications of this were done in the west. The book has been written in the style of detective fiction and so the reader's attention is riveted on the narration to know what is to come next. 

It ends with an interesting analysis of the debilitating effect that religion has had on the development of science since christianity came to dominate, which led to the dark ages and extends it to the relationship between religion and science in modern India which has now come to a head with the present ruling dispensation.