We need scientific temper, not just tech

What is common among these three facts?

One, nearly 50 per cent of Americans in several States in the US, supported by Governors and members of Congress, have preferred not to get vaccinated, exercising their ‘rights’, despite abundant supply of vaccines. In addition to spreading Covid to others, these people are providing the breeding ground for new variants of Covid leading to lethal new waves.

This is happening despite clear statistical evidence that more than 99 per cent of Covid fatalities in US are currently in the non-vaccinated population.

Two, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that an environmental disaster brought about by man-made global warming is approaching us faster than what was earlier projected by scientists, there are many people, including influential politicians in US, who still believe that global warming is a ‘hoax’.

Three, there are Americans living in affluent suburbs who still subscribe to the belief that the world is flat, not round, despite the photographs of the earth beamed to us from spacecrafts. The common element is the lack of scientific temper in a country considered to be at the forefront of technological advancement.

Going back

In this context, let us go back to 1893 when Swami Vivekananda took a voyage, along with Jamshedji Tata, in the same ship from Yokohama, Japan to Vancouver, Canada. Vivekananda was going to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago while Tata was going to participate in a technology fair. During the long journey, Swamiji reportedly told Jamshedji that technology can be imported but scientific temper has to be built within a country through proper education — it cannot be purchased from outside. Without scientific temper, a nation may materially prosper but it cannot get rid of superstitions.

How true and prophetic were the Swamiji’s words! Not only for a poor technologically backward country like India in the last decade of the 19th century but also for the richest country in the world sending missions to the Mars in third decade of the 21st century.

How much has the situation changed in our country since Swamiji’s observations? No doubt, in economic and technological terms, India has hugely advanced.

But now there is a rise in unscientific beliefs and superstitions. Dozens of TV channels are devoted to advertising products like ‘Dhan Laxmi Jantra’ or ‘Hanuman Lockets’ for thousands of rupees a piece which are guaranteed to bring prosperity to individuals buying those products. This is in addition to 24x7 astrology channels promising cures for all kinds of ailments and personal problems. Some activists and crusaders against superstitions have been physically assaulted and even killed.

Unscientific temper is proliferating in many other areas. Politicians and groups are imposing their personal preferences and faiths on others without scientific scrutiny of the ideas so promoted. For example, consumption of beef is being banned in many States. Even if one grants that cow is a very useful animal in the Indian context, this does not justify a blanket ban on cow slaughter or consumption.

Beef is the cheapest source of animal protein for many poor people. If healthy useful cows need to be protected, enough legal safeguards can be built into the laws, without imposing a blanket ban on cow slaughter or consumption.

Some States have also started to withdraw eggs from the mid-day meals of primary school children on the ground that this is against the sentiments of vegetarians. Then again, egg is considered by scientists to be the food which has the highest absorption rate among all the sources of protein including milk and pulses for young children. Egg, compared to milk, is more easily storable and transportable (in boiled form) and more difficult to adulterate, in addition to being fairly cheap (compared to fish or meat). Hence, there is no rational justification for banning eggs in school meals where malnutrition among small children is a very serious problem in India.

The argument that vegetarians, too, can live healthy lives, presupposes that they are able to get protein from other sources like milk. But, as already explained, it may not be possible to serve milk in sufficient quantities in healthy unadulterated way in most of the schools in India. If some vegetarians do not want to eat eggs, alternative arrangements should surely be made for them but there is no justification to deprive others of the most convenient form of protein.

Moreover, once such things are allowed, there is no end to extending this kind of argument on the basis of the ‘sentiments’ of some group or other in India. For instance, consumption of pork is against the sentiments of many Muslims. But can that be an argument for banning it for others?

Our politicians, instead of devoting their energies to these ‘sentimental’ pursuits, should instead focus on regulating the promotion of unscientific beliefs, devices and practices. But it is easier said than done as many politicians, apart from personally subscribing to such beliefs, do benefit, financially or electorally, by promoting non-science.

The writer is a former Professor of Economics, IIM, Calcutta, and Cornell University, US

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