Missing case of Scientific Temper
April 01, 2020
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
is a global emergency. All nation-states are working on war footing to contain
this micro-organism. To put the micro
in context; if one takes a strand of hair and stretches it to the size of a
football ground, the virus is just four centimeter with respect to that scale. It
is ironic that this small micro-organism has the potential to stall the greatest
ever civilization. Although governments are trying to face this unprecedented
pandemic, few citizens have failed their society by violating lockdowns, hiding
travel history and jumping quarantine but many of us have failed another fundamental
duty as Indian citizens: to develop scientific temper.
Indian
Roots
Article 51A (h) of the Indian
Constitution asks citizens to ‘develop scientific temper, humanism and the
spirit of inquiry and freedom’, although this provision was inserted later in
1976, the intellectual groundwork was laid during the freedom movement.
Jawaharlal Nehru explains scientific temper as “the scientific approach, the adventurous and yet critical temper of
science, the search for truth and new knowledge, the refusal to accept anything
without testing and trial, the capacity to change previous conclusions in the
face of new evidence, the reliance on observed fact and not on pre-conceived
theory”. But the root of Indian scientific temper goes further back to the
ancient ages of Aryabhata, Chakravaka,
Buddha and many more.
Ancient India supported many scientific philosophies during its time but the very idea of scientific temper involves
exposure to new knowledge in lieu of
new society. The grave mishap to the Indian society is that such scientific
philosophies became rigid overtime thereby reducing its significance to the
modern world. Many fellow citizens who harp about the ancient golden age seem
to try to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s knowledge. We can see many
people drinking ash(Vibhuti) diluted
with water, cow urine and what not to prevent themselves from coronavirus. This
lack of awareness to think rationally is the exact case of the missing temper
for science.
Separating
Faith from Facts
During hard times like
these, faith is very important; it gives us solace and hope but unfortunately
it does not provide us with material solutions. It does not seem wise to look
for the latter in faith because it might be detrimental to not just you but to
the whole society around you. Let us take the example of the Tablighi Jamaat
conference in Nizamuddin defying the warning of authorities in mid-March. Many,
from throughout India and abroad, seem to have attended the event thereby creating
a conducive environment for the virus to thrive and spread. More absurdly,
instead of identifying themselves for testing, they seem to hide inside mosques
and their houses. As a direct consequence of this gathering, positive cases
snowballed thereby putting the whole nation in even more risk. The governments
are breaking their head to trace each and every participant to test for the
virus; the domino effect of cases spreading in the community is another head to
break.
Less than 12 hours after
Prime Minister Modi announced a 21-day national lockdown over
coronavirus fears, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath participated in an early
morning ritual to shift the idol of Lord Ram from a tin shed inside the Ram Janmabhoomi to a temporary structure
made of fibre. This shows that even chief ministers are not immune to
irrationality. The irrationality, however, is not specific to India as a few
mosques and churches saw crowd around the world. This is no way a case against
religion as many religious leaders came forward to advise people to stay home,
but a case against individual irrationality and lack of scientific temper.
It would be best if we
remember what Swami Vivekananda said about reason and religion: “….For it is better that mankind should
become atheist by following reason than blindly believe in two hundred million
gods on the authority of anybody” he continues “I will abide by my reason because with all its weakness there is some
chance of my getting at truth through it…”.
Common
Consciousness
To have scientific temper
is to have freedom of thought, inquiry and expression. It is the ability to
think critically on a case by case basis rather than reaffirming pre-conceived
notions. Many fellow citizens irrespective of their education, seem to be a
victim of extreme confirmation bias-
blindly believing what they already believe to be true disregarding actual
fact. This shows that scientific temper is not necessarily directly
proportional to literacy.
There are a whole slew of
misinformation circulating in social media, especially WhatsApp. Take the
instance of PM’s call to appreciate healthcare workers during the Janata curfew;
from vibrations curing the virus to sun rays spreading the third wave and coming
out at five o’clock to show support to the PM, the utensil clanging exercise
unfortunately lost the plot of appreciating health workers to show the strength
of political agenda.
These are all results of individual
irrationality coming together to defeat society. The worrying thing is that in
the absence of scientific temper, no new technology or invention can be used to
benefit everyone in the society but misinformation and disinformation can spread
like wildfire. Therefore it is important to build a common consciousness as a
society to move towards reason and shun irrationality. Through this, the case
of misinformation and confirmation bias can be tackled by inculcating
scientific temper. Children are naturally curious and full of questions; the
common consciousness would help imbibe in our children the sense of reason.
Individual responsibility
to the collective society is the basis for inclusion of fundamental duties to
the Indian Constitution. Developing scientific temper as a society would help
take India on her path towards growth and development without leaving any
citizen behind. It does not mean elimination of culture and tradition but rational use of each for their own respective purposes as Nehru points out: “it is
therefore with the temper and approach of science, allied to philosophy, and
with the reverence for all that lies beyond, that we must face life”. It is thus time that we dismiss superstition and do our fundamental duty to let better
sense and rationality prevail.
By Benolin
Mute Spectator is the primary series of the blog where we express out opinions on current affairs.
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