PANDIT JAWAHARLAL NEHRU
(14.11.1889---27.5.1964)
Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister
of India. During his tenure as Prime Minister, he was popularly known as the
architect of modern India. Though he had a considerable fondness for religion
and philosophy, his chief interest lay in science and technology. The development
of scientific temperament in all fields of life was the main item on his political
and socio-economic agenda.
On his 57th death anniversary , here are some of
his most valuable thoughts on science and
technology.
1.Science is the spirit of the age and the dominating factor
of the modern world. Even more than the present, the future belongs to science
and to those who make friends with science and seek its help for the
advancement of humanity.
2.The process of change through science and technology is
seen everywhere. As it spreads, the old
gods or the old supreme values cease to have
the same validity as before. Physics and mathematics lead to new conceptions
which are hard to grasp, where matter disappears and all is energy. One might
almost say that the solid world dissolves into some mathematical concept or
illusion, perhaps approaching the concept of maya.
3. My own main interest in science arises naturally from the
social consequences of science than science itself. We have to face major political, economic and
in the main social problems of a growing country and of raising the level of
hundreds of millions of our people. It is clear that we cannot solve these
problems without taking recourse to science and its application.
4. Science ultimately is a search for truth but sometimes that
search leads us to an uncomfortable
conclusion; because one has to search for truth and search for it without fear
and as objectively as possible.
5.Science does not believe in authoritarianism of anything,
and, if I may say so with all respect, in Public Affairs and Politics, even in Religion,
Science challenges that too, not disrespectfully but simply because it does not
wish to accept anything without adequate proof being afforded to it. It does
not accept pure speculation. It may indulge in it occasionally but that has to
be justified by experiment.
6. Without Science there is no future for any society, unless
it is controlled by some spiritual impulses, there is also no future.
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27th May 2021 G.R.Kanwal
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