Back to Article List
Do Indian scientists have a true scientific temper?
by K P Prabhakaran Nair on 18 Jan 2014 8 Comments
A recent article by the writer on the drift in agricultural research in India elicited scores of positive responses from readers, but none from any agricultural scientist, barring a tame one from a Principal Scientist affiliated to the Planning Board, Government of Kerala, who was candid enough to say that he is working “just for his bread and butter”. While the congratulatory messages gladdened me, the Principal Scientist’s mail disturbed me. I had expected at least some agricultural scientists to question me, fault my article, or endorse it, and most importantly suggest what needs to be done to remedy the pathetic scientific environment in the agricultural front in the country. But none of it happened.  

 

I had concluded the article saying, “Unless fresh ideas and brilliant minds combine, Indian agricultural research will go down the drain”. It was a daring comment which I mentally debated a while before penning and finally deciding to stick my neck out. This takes me back almost three decades to mid 1970 when I was still working in Europe and was invited to participate in an important conference in Ranchi (Jharkhand), where I  questioned some of the established scientific methodology, including statistical procedures to gauge the success or failure of a field trial, and took the courage to make a bold statement that if Indian agricultural research establishment continued to take the road it was on, the so-called green revolution was bound to fall flat on its face in another decade.

 

I vividly recall the wrath, the disdain, and sheer “uncontaminated humiliatory and dismissive gestures” of the “big wigs” of Indian agricultural science, assembled in the audience. Some simply refused to talk to me during the coffee and lunch breaks, others made snide remarks within hearing distance, most simply dismissed my presence. Strangely, none confronted me with an argument to demolish my hypothesis. 

 

Indian agriculture was then basking under the “cascading success” of the so-called green revolution in Punjab, the “cradle” of the Indian green revolution. In 1986, when I chanced to run across a “very big wig” of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in Hamburg, then The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),  during the World Soil Science Congress to which I was invited to make a presentation on the revolutionary soil management technique I had developed (The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept). This gentleman was on a sort of “holiday” at the expense of the national exchequer, not having a research paper to present in the Congress, but to savour the German hospitality.  

 

By then I was already a Senior Fellow of the world renowned Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of the FRG, and was just named to the National Chair of the Science Foundation, The Royal Society, Belgium. The “very big wig” who was present in the Ranchi conference in 1974, who had dismissed me then, veered towards me and graciously remarked, “Yes, Professor Nair, we have a very big environmental problem in India, especially soil related – a fallout of the green revolution, as rightly predicted by you”. In 1974, I had feared that he would confront and chastise me. But now he was on the way to retirement. My question is, what prevented him in telling this truth at the right time? Still, it was some vindication.  

 

I have always felt that Indians on the whole lack a true scientific temper. It certainly takes some cheekiness to be a brilliant scientist. I still remember the days when I had the opportunity to visit Cambridge when Francis Crick was there. he was one of the famous Watson-Crick duo who cracked the DNA code which revolutionised and brought to the forefront the “new” science of biotechnology, away from the general science of biology; he was always the “big mouth” who had the cheekiness to suggest that probably the amino acids were all coiled up like snakes on a ladder with such wonderful symmetry (God’s design perhaps?). Looking back it sounds so very simple, but then, almost a half century ago (the book on Double Helix was published in 1962), it took some great imagination and guts to suggest such a daring hypothesis.

 

I must digress a trifle on this. Centuries ago, when the Church held fast to the belief that the earth was flat, Copernicus, Galileo and Bruno had the cheek to suggest it was not so, and questioned the “Geo Centric” theory which said that Earth was at the centre of the universe as held by the Church. They contrarily suggested the “Helio Centric” theory and claimed the Sun as the centre of the universe. Both Copernicus and Galileo were lucky enough to escape the wrath of the Church, while Bruno was not. He was burnt alive at a stake on February 17 1600 CE for hearsay. This shows the level of intolerance to new ideas opposed to dogmas or beliefs.

 

In our own era, I must say bricks and buildings will never make Indian science, only brains will. Else, India should have produced at least some Nobel Laureates. Saha, Bose and Raman did very original work without such extravagant facilities. Please go round the country and see the ever so many “research” institutes, “centres of excellence’, so on and so forth, lavishly funded with huge buildings, instrumentation etc., but what is the scientific contribution of truly global significance? Hardly any.  

 

Another recent and worrying aspect is the widespread use of “copycat research” and plagiarism. And research paper “production”. One can write any number of inconsequential “research” papers and publish the same in totally unknown foreign journals and claim credit to have published in “international” journals. There are hundreds of such “international” journals of no scientific credit and credibility. They are merely printed overseas, that is all. I know of several such in all fields of science.

 

Then there are endless numbers of Directors of Institutes and Vice Chancellors of Universities who insist that every “research” paper published from the institute bears his or her name. In this manner, research “scientists” “produce” hundreds of papers which are at best good enough only to wrap vegetables.

 

A recent sting operation has exposed the fraud in scientific publishing globally, and India leads the pack. Do we really dream big or are we content with the dictum of “publish or perish”, no matter what we publish? When someone recently flatulently boasted that he published 1500 research papers, wrote 50 books, and guided more than 50 Ph.D students in a span of ten years (five per annum), something is worryingly wrong with Indian science and its quality.

 

Our scientific contributions must pass the rigorous test of world standards to be accepted as contributions of real substance globally. On a comparable time scale with the above mentioned “scientist”, I could publish just about 50 top class research papers in very highly reputed scientific journals, write only three books and guide merely five Ph.D students. Are these 1500 “research” papers of any substance? A European, Japanese or American counterpart cannot even dream of such a feat. And most ironically and distressingly, such persons manage to climb up the ladder to the top rung of “governmental recognition”.

 

The author is currently Senior Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, The Federal Republic of Germany           
User Comments Post a Comment
For scientific analysis one needs clarity of thought . Can a education system south asians inherited from colonialism produce men and women who could think clearly with clarity. The system was only created to produce men and women who thought like the colonial powers,dressed like them to be the go between the masses and the colonial power Britain- macauley. In other words men and women with an enslaved mind. This now has been made worse by the greed of a market economy and highjacking of higher education by foreign universities . Well what do you expect -their mindset will be always warped and they will never be able to think straight.
jan
January 18, 2014
Report Abuse
I wish, indian agricultural scientist remain like this rather than applying their brain and bringing in more destruction..

We already have elaborate system of diverse agricultural practices across india.. so the govt should empower these local farmers by giving academic & legal recognition, rather than shelling out large sums of money as salaries to these dumb agricultural idiots (scientists)..

Infact, i question the very basics of research.. research for what and for whom? in the name of research, the scientists in tamilnadu are just making some random hybridisation of native seeds and giving it a new name.. why should we make such mindless hybridisation, and why cant we just pursue the local seeds and practices without change?

The scientific community is under the false notion of belief that any thing that does not change becomes backward and retarded.. this perspective should change.. any change should be made ONLY when necessary and NOT as default..
senthil
January 18, 2014
Report Abuse
Thank you, Dr Nair, for such candid and simple explanation of the state of science in agriculture. We have observed that research funds are being systematically diverted away from productive and safe technology and being used for research that benefits big agri-biz. Reports of world record breaking yields are pouring in from all parts of the country, yet a systematic scientific validation is not being done. And now I hear that the multinational corporations have taken over a big chunk of funding on research that does not help the farmers. Nalanda farmers achieved record breaking yields in rice, wheat, potato and onion and other vegetable crops consistently since 2010 by adopting a combined technique of system of crop intensification, proper soil management and bio-diverse cropping pattern. When I asked for soil test report [carbon content and certain mineral matrix] they did not have data. The comparative data on yield of GM and non-GM organic cotton yield is also available but has not been released to the public. This is silencing of honest science.
Arun Shrivastava
January 19, 2014
Report Abuse
Extremely poorly written and biased article. The article never mentions about the kind the crops to be grown, crop diversity, irrigation, etc. The author also presumes, like Senthil says, that if there is no change, there is a lack of growth. Also 'research' in agriculture is a misnomer when we talk about research in seeds. Seeds have evolved over millennia and are suited to specific regions and climate. Doing ‘research’ in seed hybrids is like doing research in hybrid tiger. If bring a tiger from siberia and cross it with a tiger in mudumalai sanctuary you'll get bastard hybrid tiger which cannot survive either in siberia or in mudumalai and will be susceptible to diseases and weak. Same logic holds for seeds also. Same also with our native cow breeds which were crossed with swiss breeds creating mutant cows. Forget about swiss, crossing a native cow from rajasthan with a native cow from kerala itself is grossly wrong, and cows should have been looked at through the lens of species, instead of seeing all Indian native cows as the same.
Agriculture in India has been hijacked by rice, wheat and sugarcane mafia. Most of our politicians from almost all states come from either one of these mafias. They use political power and lobbying to build large dams and steal as much water from our rivers as possible to grow rice, wheat, sugarcane sometimes even THREE crops a year. Growing three crops of rice-rice-rice in a calendar year is nothing but the work of rice/water mafia which gets dams built through political lobbying, while everyone else in India suffers and do not have clean water for drinking/cooking/bathing. ‘Irrigation’ is simply a sanitized/censored word for water theft. Crops are supposed to grow naturally with whatever rainfall that occurs on the piece of land. Irrigation is resorted to only when rainfall for that season falls below 60% normal rainfall. But for rice, wheat, sugarcane farmers every season/every year is a ‘drought’ as the greed to maximize profits is insatiable.
Rice requires more than 150cm of rain in a growing season. It requires a flat land and stagnant pool of water. Rice can only be grown naturally in India in the west coast and Bengal/Assam which have abundant rainfall and water resources. This is only around 5-10% of the area of India. The rest of India is dry and cannot support rice, unless by building huge dams and looting the water resources of our rivers and groundwater. Since the real cost of growing rice is so high, more than 95% of Indians cannot afford to have rice as a staple food (eaten everyday) unless there is government intervention. Government intervenes by reducing the price of rice, like Rs2/Kg rice, etc which completely kills the free market for rice. Small scale rice farmers cannot compete to sell their grains in open market in these reduced prices and are dependent on government procurement system where Government buys back at higher price. In the end everyone loses. Huge amounts of tax money wasted. People die of poverty. Only a small section of rich rice mafia landlords benefit.
Wheat requires a cold climate to grow. Wheat is ideally suited to grow in mediterranean/europe/America not in India. Wheat is grown in India in the winter season after the monsoon. Hence even though wheat by itself doesn’t require much water since it is grown after the rainy season, it is also fully dependent on irrigation.
Sugarcane is another crop which requires huge amounts of water input. Maharashtra which is one of the driest states in India produces a good amount of sugarcane in India. The sugarcane mafia in maharashtra has also got a hold in the hybrid/GM seeds company mahyco which has looted the cotton farmers of vidarbha by distributing GM seeds.
The traditional millet growing states are the drier western states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. Especially in Karnataka and Gujarat the economic imbalance and poverty is lesser than in Rice/Wheat growing states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar.
Another propaganda pushed by government is of Green Revolution. Green Revolution did nothing but removed millets from circulation and imposed monoculture of Rice/Wheat. It also promoted chemical farming using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and using useless hybrid and foreign seeds. The cause of Khalistan revolution itself was the green revolution itself which put small farmers in debt. The agro corporations and scientists have gone one step further in the recent times and are pushing for genetically modified crops.
The problems in Indian agriculture can be solved easily. Stop subsidizing Rice, Wheat and Sugarcane. Promote organic farming and use of indigenous seeds instead of useless hybrid and poisonous GM seeds. Promote use of Cow/Buffalo dung/urine as organic fertilizer instead of synthetic fertilizer, and promote use of Neem leaves/Neem oil as pesticide instead of chemical pesticides.
Declare rice, wheat as luxury crops. Make millets as staple crops instead of rice, wheat. Oppose rice/wheat mafia politicians/farmers and greedy agro-scientists who want to push more synthetic farming instead of organic farming.

rajiv
January 19, 2014
Report Abuse
@Rajiv : //The problems in Indian agriculture can be solved easily. Stop subsidizing Rice, Wheat and Sugarcane. Promote organic farming and use of indigenous seeds instead of useless hybrid and poisonous GM seeds. Promote use of Cow/Buffalo dung/urine as organic fertilizer instead of synthetic fertilizer, and promote use of Neem leaves/Neem oil as pesticide instead of chemical pesticides.//

I am in agreement with the thought of using organic fertilizers instead of synthetic chemical fertilizers. That way, the food grains produced will be harmless as compared to those produced with chemical fertilizers.

But will organic farming make India self sufficient in food production? Let us remember that before the green revolution, India was always in a famine condition or was a severe food shortage economy, with the necessity to import food grains from the developed countries. Today India is a food surplus country.

I have no connection with agricultural families and hence I have no idea about agriculture. I am asking for clarifications as a concerned common man only.
Bala
January 19, 2014
Report Abuse
@Bala

The issue is not just of organic farming, but also what crops we are growing. Millets grow without any added irrigation. Just rainfall will suffice. unlike Rice,Wheat,Sugarcane. Millets also produce much more straw compared to rice,wheat, hence the same farmers who say grows ragi can rear 3 to 4 times more cows for same cost than a rice farmer.

Besides millets, we must be growing more oil seeds like sesame, more pulses, etc. At the moment India is importing cooking oil from other countries most of which is 'refined' and toxic.

India was not self sufficient during british times was because
1)many a time land was snatched away and given to zamindars who were friendly to british.
2)harsh taxes, and rigging the economy
3) Many places especially in Bengal,Bihar and central India the traditional crops were replaced with opium and to a lesser extent jute. So these farmers were dependent on food stocked in granaries as they were forced to solely grow crops like opium to fund the british.
4) The british converted many of the millet farms to rice, wheat because rice, wheat have an international market. Millets are consumed only in India and Africa, but not in America or Europe. The same policies of converting millet farms to rice farms has been continued by our politicians even after independence.

Agricultural output went up after independence because of construction of big dams, more irrigation canals, etc, not because of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or hybrid seeds. While this has improved food output, it has reduced the quality of water in our rivers. Many old, small rivers, reservoirs have dried up due to over use of groundwater/river-water resources to grow rice/wheat.

Making millets as our staple food instead of rice/wheat will ensure food security and also ensure that our water resources are not abused. Also organic farming is not merely a luxury but must be made priority.
rajiv
January 19, 2014
Report Abuse

Agree with the author that Indian modern scientific research and education is substandard compared to west, but the problem is much bigger. Western science is organic to western lifestyle, economics, beliefs that evolved in the last few centuries. Not only India even countries like Japan , China have no big contribution to fundamental research compared with West.
Having said that we have to understand western science is not final word on knowledge, it's scope is limited and in fact it has reached it's limitations. In 50 yrs there is no fundamental addition to the pool of knowledge by western science. The ways of universe are as mysterious as before and western science has no clue about it
What Indians need to do is re-evaluate the foundations of western science and compare and contrast with their own traditional Knowledge
The best and real scientific temper is when individual questions and does self-inquiry on himself to know himself and his relation with the Cosmos. Indian tradition abundantly motivates people into self-inquiry. From such inquiry comes holistic knowledge that is nourishing and fulfilling.
The piecemeal approach of western science is only confusing people giving them false sense of knowledge without any satisfying conclusions. Worst is standardization of western scientific theories through education with little scope to think different.
It doesn't mean western science is worthless, In fact the ingenuity factor is very high and it's methods are impressive but still it lacks proper foundation, goal and comprehensive outlook
Those Hindu traditionalists who claim everything originated from Vedas and everything in Hindu tradition is scientific are just behaving like Ostrich. If Hindu tradition is all science they should bring it up and challenge western science on solid foundations not on some vague assertions.
The Hindu tradition has enough intellectual capital to challenge or make western science complete, but modern Hindu is clueless, confused drifting directionless in the storm unleashed by formidable western intellect and the institutions it created.
Unless west is challenged at a very fundamental level based on solid foundations of knowledge, westernization of planet will continue unabated, there is no doubt about it
Krishnarjun
January 20, 2014
Report Abuse
@Rajiv
I think, the "learned" reader makes a rather sweeping statement about my article in the opening sentence of his comments, itself, when he says "extremely poorly written article" and the author "lacks vision" so on and so forth, and makes a fool of himself without taking the trouble to read through the article carefully, and, digest its central theme.

May I please point out, for the benefit of this confused reader, that, I am talking here about the lack of true and original imaginative capacity among Indian agricultural scientists ("cheekiness") and am not discussing the pros and cons of GM crops, millets, so on and so forth. I have extensively written in Vijayvaani on all these topics and would advise him to do a google on my name to be better informed.

At present I have no option but to dismiss these comments as irrelevant to the central theme of the article
Prof K P Prabhakaran Nair
January 20, 2014
Report Abuse