The scientific community must train a new generation of communicators who are trained properly in science, but also know how to resonate with the public.
THE HISTORY OF science is replete with thousands of examples of the way modern or empirical science was opposed by well-entrenched forces in society at any given time. Some of the oldest cultures have also resisted scientific ideas based on their own interpretation of the physical world. For example, Hindus have claimed that Hinduism has contributed some the most seminal ideas to science and mathematics and engineering and aviation. Many scientific concepts and engineering ideas in these cultures were merely ideas or concepts or mostly flights of imagination. For example, the Pushpak Viman.
There have been innumerable debates and controversies about the power of scientific inventions and concepts since the Vedic times. At the Indian Science Congress held in Mumbai in 2015, there was a separate session on “ancient sciences through Sanskrit” that drew a lot of fire from rationalists and modern scientists. It was alleged that the session was organised just to please the new political dispensation in Delhi as the Prime Minister usually inaugurates the Science Congress every year. Many of the speakers on the Vedic sciences drew ridicule for not being able to provide any rational explanation of the phenomena they were trying to demonstrate. Subsequent Science Congresses have disbanded the ancient sciences session.
India was home to ancient universities or seats of higher learning of Nalanda and Takshashila that were either destroyed or decayed a long time ago. However, the government of India resurrected Nalanda, but the project is now mired in political infighting. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, the first head appointed by the UPA government, and no friend of the present BJP government, has resigned. No one really knows what goes on at this university.
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