Rabindranath Tagore wanted science to help develop society

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Rabindranath Tagore wanted science to help develop society

By Mallika Sarabhai
DNA
Sunday, May 8, 2011

A few months ago, I was interviewing the woman,
considered the mother of Indian nutritional sciences, Dr
Vijaya Venkat. Talking about the need for sustainability
in food production and consumption, she said, "Unless we
understand that we and the environment are one and the
same, there is no solution". What a profound idea, I
thought. It is only because we, as humans, believe we are
the superior race, with the world and its wealth as our
plundering ground that we are in the sorry state of want
and degradation of the earth, soil, water and air that we
are in.

It was with a sense of amazement then that I read the
following passage from Rabindranath Tagore, quoted in
Tagore: The Myriad Minded Man by Dutta and Robinson. "I
feel that once upon a time I was at one with the rest of
the earth, that grass grew green upon me, that the autumn
sun fell upon me and under its rays the warm scent of
youth wafted from every pore of my far-flung ever green
body. As my waters and mountains lay spread out through
the land, dumbly soaking up the radiance of a cloudless
sky, an elixir of life and joy was inarticulately
secreted from the immensity of my being. So, it is that
my feelings seem to be those of our ancient planet, ever
germinant and efflorescent, shuddering with sun-kissed
delight". What a contrast to the rapacious way in which
we view the earth today.

In talking of Tagore in this year of his 150th birth
anniversary, how many of us know of his passion for
science and its use for what we call social development
today? In fact, in foreseeing the need for scientific
thought and technology in third world development he was
probably one of the earliest people. In his scheme and
understanding of things, imposed solutions and imported
technology could never last. He felt that the developer
and the development had to adapt to the local scenario.
"It was not the Kingdom of the expert in the midst of the
inept and ignorant which we wanted to establish -although
the experts' advice [is] advisable" he is quoted as
saying in Dutta's book.

His first experiment started with his own farm, near his
home, in 1920. With the help of an American heiress and
the Britisher, Leonard Elmhirst, he started experiments
there. Though, they in themselves were not hugely
successful, they inspired much further thinking along
those lines, including amongst the newly-independent
India's decision-makers. The Elmhirsts went on to set up
the unique Dartington Hall in Devon, till date a home for
radical and free thinkers and home to many of Tagore's
paintings and original manuscripts.

Tagore wrote about science from an early age and felt
that science had to serve society and not vice versa. He
even had a disagreement with Albert Einstein about this,
where he felt that the latter put science at the center
of the Universe rather than the human being. Strangely,
it was nearly a century later, in 1984 that Nobel winner
in Chemistry Ilya Prigogene is said to have acknowledged
the poet's prescience in demanding that science serve
humanity. (As Vikram Sarabhai's daughter, I was brought
up on this, and saw institutions like ISRO and PRL
fighting for ways to serve some of the most endemic of
our problems as a developing nation. I still remember the
early experiments at Pij with TV programming aimed at
educating millions of farmers in their own homes.)

For too long have we seen this amazing man as a bard. For
too long have Bengalis made him their icon (thought this
happened only after his death - during his life time he
was more often reviled than idolised there!) and have
purloined him for Bengal. He was the rarest of men, one
the likes of which this nation has not produced since.
Let us celebrate then this multifaceted genius in all his
splendour.

More at:
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/column_rabindranath-tagore-wanted-science-to-help-develop-society_1540799

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

o o o

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-Updated on February 2, 2012-