The Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Harshvardhan has said that Science is to be used for making narrow nationalism irrelevant. Delivering welcome address at the Commonwealth Science Conference in Bangalore today, he called upon people to resolve on the 100th anniversary of the First World War, that never again must man distort science for destruction. The Conference has been inaugurated by the President of India Shri Pranab Mukharjee in Bangalore today.
The Minister said that the First World War, whose centenary we are observing now, made it possible for man to kill man on an industrial scale. For most of the 20th century humankind lived under the threat of total annihilation because science and technology had been put to use as a tool of world domination. Today, through the inauguration of the Commonwealth Science Congress, we are indeed ringing in a new age which would see science being utilized for the good of all. Some member nations of the Commonwealth have greater scientific and technological capacities than others. These advantages should not be guarded selfishly, because in selfishness lies the seeds of dispute and human misery.
Dr. Harshvardhan opined that Einstein and Tagore, wherever they are today, must be blessing this event. They had met four times in the 1930s and in the course of their long and celebrated conversations which have been recorded for posterity, the possibility of science and technology being turned over for unselfish ends figured quite frequently.
He said that Science is that adhesive which binds cultures. Very early in our nationalist struggle, the political leaders of 19th century India made it their objective to infuse the scientific temper in society through support for social reform movements. There was a high degree of awareness of the potential of the industrial revolution in generating a new, independent spirit which was quite radical when we consider the society of the times where the aspiration of the individual counted for little before the status quoist consensus that generally guided society.
The Minister said that thanks to the rapid popularization of science as an university discipline in late 19th century-early 20th century India, the foundation of an egalitarian society was laid for the first time. Divisions based on caste, religion, tribe and gender began to be questioned openly by the educated elite and our nationalist movement leapfrogged to a position of formidable level. This line of thinking blossomed in Indias adoption of secularism and inclusivism as her inviolable national mantra.
The Minister said that the First World War, whose centenary we are observing now, made it possible for man to kill man on an industrial scale. For most of the 20th century humankind lived under the threat of total annihilation because science and technology had been put to use as a tool of world domination. Today, through the inauguration of the Commonwealth Science Congress, we are indeed ringing in a new age which would see science being utilized for the good of all. Some member nations of the Commonwealth have greater scientific and technological capacities than others. These advantages should not be guarded selfishly, because in selfishness lies the seeds of dispute and human misery.
Dr. Harshvardhan opined that Einstein and Tagore, wherever they are today, must be blessing this event. They had met four times in the 1930s and in the course of their long and celebrated conversations which have been recorded for posterity, the possibility of science and technology being turned over for unselfish ends figured quite frequently.
He said that Science is that adhesive which binds cultures. Very early in our nationalist struggle, the political leaders of 19th century India made it their objective to infuse the scientific temper in society through support for social reform movements. There was a high degree of awareness of the potential of the industrial revolution in generating a new, independent spirit which was quite radical when we consider the society of the times where the aspiration of the individual counted for little before the status quoist consensus that generally guided society.
The Minister said that thanks to the rapid popularization of science as an university discipline in late 19th century-early 20th century India, the foundation of an egalitarian society was laid for the first time. Divisions based on caste, religion, tribe and gender began to be questioned openly by the educated elite and our nationalist movement leapfrogged to a position of formidable level. This line of thinking blossomed in Indias adoption of secularism and inclusivism as her inviolable national mantra.
