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Showing posts from October 9, 2014

Worth Reading : India’s age old scientific temper and the Mangalyaan Mission

More than a week ago when the nation was celebrating the success of the Mangalayan project, senior journalist Nikhil Wagle tweeted thus: The most obvious first question: Is it a crime for scientists to visit temples and to practice their faith?  Is bestowing honors to Balaji before Mangalyaan’s success equal to scoffing at rational enquiry which is the edifice of science research?  I don’t remember any ISRO scientist claiming that it was Balaji who put the space project to action so why the gibe? The point made by Wagle and many self-proclaimed rationalists and progressives is that Indians should not stick to their past heritage. This scientific temper business was initiated by the pioneer of Indian secularism, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as claimed in this piece . It is a known fact that Nehru was hugely influenced by ‘Fabian Socialism’ and intellectuals from the erstwhile Union of Socialist Soviet Republic. Following Mangalyaan’s success, many self-proclaimed rationalists