I fail to understand whether Santosh Helekar is deliberately misinterpreting the contents of my article or he lacks knowledge of the English language. In my article, I have stated: "Our contribution to civilization, (and it cannot be disputed) is "zero". “No pun intended." I maintain, reiterate and reconfirm it. It is well known and undisputed fact that India invented “zero” and it cannot be disputed that it is our contribution to World Civilisation and that is why I have put the word “zero” in inverted commas. I have thereafter used the words “no pun intended” expecting someone like Santosh Helekar, may get confused. But in vain. There is no need for me to move any goal posts. It is our post independence hockey team, that may have to do so ! We may then at least qualify for the next Olympics.
It has never been my case that Indians in India are not involved in scientific research. But it is my case that nothing substantial has been achieved by Indian research post independence. There are and always will be intelligent people aiming to achieve some scientific break through as we Indians certainly do not lack intellect. If it was not for our “way of life”, we would have dozens of Nobel Prize winners. Why has Santosh Helekar migrated to the USA if everything is hunky dory in India? Is he a hypocrite? It is not unlikely that the great personalities which Santosh Helekar has mentioned would have done much better if they had a more conducive environment. Again there is misinterpretation of my submissions by Santosh Helekar. I have not at any time said that Turkey is an ideally developed nation. What I pointed out is that at a critical juncture Turkey had in Kemal Attaturk a leader who understood the reasons for the backwardness of his country and pushed it on the path to modernity by discarding age old superstitions and rotten traditions, the type which still prevail in our country. It cannot be disputed that Turkey alone of all the Islamic nations stands out as a modern forward looking country with a secular law where a Muslim can have only one wife at a time. I am not concerned with the number of Nobel prizes that Spain or Portugal has won. I hold no brief for those countries. However, I am certainly concerned that my own country with a billion and two hundred million people, (fifteen times more than the combined population of Spain and Portugal) has no Nobel prize to its credit post independence. In the concluding part of his comments in answering the two queries raised by me as to why Indians have to go abroad to achieve fulfillment, Santosh Helekar has unwittingly backed my arguments by stating “As I mentioned earlier, many of them have achieved it in India. But it is easier to do so in the U.S. today because of the reasons stated above. To wrap up, I would just like to say that my own criticism of present day India from the standpoint of scientific advancement is its lumbering bureaucracy, poor choice of priorities, lack of philanthropy and absence of serious financial commitment to cutting edge research from the government and private sector”. Precisely so, I would like my country to be what the US is today. And the only way we can do it, is by discarding superstitions, jingoism, bigotry and the ill founded belief in our greatness. Let us strive to be great. Radharao F.Gracias Vindicated? How convenient it is to move the goal post when caught in a blatant falsehood! Here is what Adv. Gracias said self-assuredly in his Herald article:"Our contribution to civilization, (and it cannot be disputed) is "zero". No pun intended.".....Adv. Radharao Gracias And now he says this:"Santosh Helekar has in his several comments pointed out the names of Srinivasan Ramanujan, S.N.Bose, P.C.Mahanabolis and C.V.Raman to buttress his point about the greatness of India. In doing so, he has completely backed my argument. It is not my case that India per se is bad but, our “way of life” has made it so. Each of the four individuals mentioned above were born in the nineteenth century and lived most of their productive lives in British India.".....Adv. Radharao GraciasSo which side of Adv. Gracias' mouth should we believe? The one which says we Indians have made zero contribution to civilization, no pun intended. Or the one which claims that we made our contributions only when the British were ruling over us.What's worse is he will have to move the goal post again, or this time speak from his nose or something, because the truth is Indians have continued to make original scientific contributions in the post-independence era. The reason Adv. Gracias does not know this is because he has not bothered to find out. Yes, no Indian working in independent India has yet won the Nobel Prize in scientific subjects, but that has more to do with the high cost and advanced state of scientific research today than anything else. As the famous Physics Nobel Laureate Paul Dirac once remarked, referring to the late 19th and early 20th centuries (coincident with Adv. Gracias' British times), contrasting it with modern times, and I paraphrase, it was a glorious time when a second rate physicist could do first rate work. Whereas, now it is very difficult for a first rate physicist to do second rate work. But independent India has continued to produce outstanding indigenous scientists of high international standing. There have been at least 20 Fellows of the Royal Society among those who made their original discoveries after independence. Our own Raghunath Mashelkar, FRS is one of them. The present day genius of the caliber of S. N. Bose is Ashoke Sen, FRS, a world-renowned theoretical physicist at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahbad, who is one of the pioneers of advanced string theory. There have been a few were unlucky not to win the Nobel Prize, such as G. N. Ramachandran who discovered the structure of collagen, and contributed to the theory behind the CAT scan. There are several national institutes such as Indian Statistical Institute, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Indian Institute of Science, The National Centre for Biological Sciences, etc, that are making steady original contributions to expand the frontiers of science. Of course, the unsung heroes behind these discoveries would not easily make it on the evening news. They would also not register on Adv. Gracias' politically tuned radar because RSS and other Hindu extremists do not care much about non-Vedic "science", and for his Maoist "saviors", this is capitalist, western, corporate science.Furthermore, if we follow his revised logic and Nobel yardstick to compare India with Turkey, his exemplar of an ideally developed nation, then despite having all the advantages of proximity with advanced European countries, Turkey has had no Nobel prize winner in science, economics, or peace, and just one in literature. Portugal has had one science prize, and Spain two, one of which was for work done in the U.S. Indeed, the vast majority of science Nobel prizes credited to any country in the world have been awarded for work done in the U.S. In other words, what you are hearing from Adv. Gracias in this regard is pure nonsense.However, I will close by answering his questions. >* *>* If India is so great why do our people have to go abroad to reach* >>*intellectual fulfillment? *>* *Rather than cast India in jingoistic terms, I would prefer to simply oppose Indians who denigrate their own country and countrymen out of ignorance, or for political, ideological or religious reasons. As I have shown above, intellectual fulfillment can be attained in India. But it is often difficult to do so because of lack of facilities, resources and specific expertise, which are heavily dependent on availability of funds for academic research.>* *>* If India is great why would these people achieve greatness only after >forsaking the country and living in the West?* >* *As I mentioned earlier, many of them have achieved it in India. But it is easier to do so in the U.S. today because of the reasons stated above.To wrap up, I would just like to say that my own criticism of present day India from the standpoint of scientific advancement is its lumbering bureaucracy, poor choice of priorities, lack of philanthropy and absence of serious financial commitment to cutting edge research from the government and private sector. Cheers,Santosh
