The Hindu Business Line : This is how thought jigsaws fell in place

FROM cannibalism to Zen, from time to the unconscious, from logic to chaos theory, and more are what Felipe Fernandez-Armesto introduces readers to in Ideas that Changed the World, a book from Dorling Kindersley (www.dk.com). It begins with the mind of the hunter (30,000 to 10,000 B.C., moves on to settlement and civilisation, takes the route of religions, discusses the illusion of progress and the 19th century frustrations, and ends with the current `age of uncertainty' where chaos is getting restored.

The idea of measuring time, for instance, was a breakthrough idea, notes the author. "The earliest known artefact that looks as though it might be a calendar was made about 30,000 years ago from a flat bone inscribed with crescents and circles: the intervals look systematic and have been read as a record of phases of the moon."

How did trade come about? Presumably from gift-exchanges, observes the book. "But what about the idea that trade adds value to goods and can be practised for profit?" An interesting question for economists. Another such is the debate whether agriculture started unconsciously or was triggered by an idea. "There is clear evidence of the independent development of agriculture in at least half a dozen places at different times, during thousands of years of global climatic change which followed the end of the last great glaciation 10,000 to 12,000 years ago."

To know where the idea of religious fundamentalism, I turn to a chapter titled `Back to basics', and am startled by the opening paragraph:

"Fundamentalism started at Princeton University in the early 20th century in intelligent minds, corrupted by literal-minded dogmatism in reaction against critical reading of the Bible."

It is a pseudo-scientific attitude, is what Karen Armstrong would say. "All the movements we call fundamentalist are different but can be identified by the excesses they share: militancy, hostility to pluralism, and a determination to confuse politics with religion."

A book that packs vast history of some of the continuing ideas we live with.

Reinvention of science

A TRAVEL back in time machine is what Dick Teresi offers one in Lost Discoveries, from Simon & Schuster. The book looks at the ancient roots of modern science, from the Babylonians to the Maya, challenging conventional wisdom in many places.

Non-Western world gets its due credit for its discoveries in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry and technology. A few glimpses:

Algebra owes its name to `al-jabr', described in Al-Khwarizmi's book Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala (Calculation by Restoration and Reduction). Jabr shares a common root with the Arabic word for `the setting of a broken bone'. Another meaning `compulsion' is seen as appropriate, because algebra compels the unknown `x' to assume a numerical value.

Al-Khwarizmi applied algebra to Islamic inheritance laws which can be arcanely complicated. For example, one-fourth of a woman's estate goes to her husband, and the rest is divided among the children, except that sons must receive twice as much as daughters.

The ancient Indians knew that zero could be enlisted in the construction of big numbers. They dated the earth at 4,300,000,000 years old, very close to current estimates. They had names for numbers with increasing powers of 10 up to 17 as early as 500 B.C. Hogben gives the Indians credit for inventing negative numbers though in a backhanded way. "Perhaps because the Hindus were in debt more often than not," he writes, "it occurred to them that it would also be useful to have numbers which represent the amount of money one owes."

More than two thousand years before Newton, the Mohists of China tackled the laws of motion. They noticed that "when a cart is moving forward drawn by a horse but the horse is suddenly halted, there is a tendency for the cart itself to keep moving forward."

The supreme large-scale technology of the ancient Middle East was hydrology. Although the pyramids of Egypt were among the biggest construction projects ever undertaken (c. 2000 B.C.), as much labour and ingenuity went into constructing Mesopotamian embankments and canals, built at about the same time for flood control and irrigation. Providing people with water, Muhammad is said to have observed, is the act of greatest value.

Perhaps the non-Western world peaked too soon, technologically speaking. By inventing a method of vulcanising rubber a thousand years before Goodyear or originating the Bessemerisation of iron a thousand years before Bessemer, these ancient inventors may have given the West a chance to "reinvent" and rename their innovations.

A book that can prompt you to backpack to ancient lands.

(Books courtesy: Landmark, Chennai. www. landmarkonthenet.com)

Bureaucracy is no bad word

AS TAXPAYERS what is important to us is not that we must be made to pay less tax, but that what we pay is spent well. For this, you need a good administration. "Public administration refers to the organisation and management of activities financed from the taxpayers' money," writes Shriram Maheshwari in his book Administrative Theory: An Introduction, published by Macmillan India Ltd (www.macmillanindia.com).

Public administration deals with the study of the `executive in action', that is, public bureaucracy; policy-making; non-government agencies such as political parties, interest groups, mass movement, terrorism and so forth, seeking to mould government's action and behaviour; corporate sector; and so on.

A whole chapter is devoted to `the bureaucracy', a word that has `an undisguisedly negative image'. It means two things: "It refers to the tasks and procedures of administration; and it is a collective word for a body of administrative officials." On the flip side, "it stands for inefficiency and an improper exercise of power on the part of officials."

It was a French economist, Vincent de Gournay, who coined the word in the 18th century. To Thomas Carlyle, it was `continental nuisance', but Max Weber "freed the term from its pejorative connotation and emphasised its indispensability for the rational attainment of the goals of an organisation." While concluding, again, the author emphasises that `proper orientations in the bureaucracy' are `the key to most of India's problems'. Good governance requires supportive attitudes in the bureaucracy, he states.

Tailpiece

"It is four for three."

"What a dismal start!"

"No, we asked for three seats, but they are giving us four."

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

D. Murali

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