By Ananya S Guha
Now science has been attacked. The Darwin theory of evolution has been dubbed a myth and falsity by the junior minister of education. He further said that it should not be taught in schools and educational institutions. So in one sweep he submerges a radically held theory, which has been studied and further researched upon into seas of ignorance. It is not clear whether he falls upon the Victorian age debate whether God created man, or the latter evolved out of lower species. To say however that it should be summarily taken out of syllabuses of study, spells how a body of knowledge and discourse even if incomplete is arbitrarily dismissed. But this is not new for the present dispensation. First the victim was Indian history, now it is scientific history. Fine scientists have shown the incompleteness of the theory, but no one has had the temerity to dismiss it as hogwash. The fact that it was and is theory, has a speculative design about it. But that it should not be taught anymore? Who is he to decide, and come out with a fatuous statement like that?
What is the purpose behind such sensational statements? What research has the minister undertaken to prove this? The curiosity of all discoveries and inventions has been relegated to the world of myths. Science has become myths and myth science. If the scientific mode is that one of inquiry based on empirical facts, then myths become the opposite dialectic, not based on evidence. So if man did not evolve it assumes that he emerged out of thin air, akin to a miraculacous descent from anywhere. Fine. But as the Biblical connotation goes God created both man and woman. The Victorian dialectic in the nineteenth century was a healthy debate between science and spirituality. The crux was, can they co- exist. If they can’t each takes its own course and destiny. It does not annul one to justify the other. It was a matter of individual choice and preference.
But here, our candid minister says that there should not be any outreach. Full stop. Pernicious theories should not be taught anymore. Says who? The minister of course. And who is he? A doctoral degree holder, and now a minister. Who are ministers? They are politicians, who when they have not much work to do, take recourse to the worst kind of sensationalism. And of course we have to take this seriously. The minister is upset, as Auden said, little children will die in streets. They have not so far, some of them are speaking on television.
Research they say. Find out more. The minister has a point, or better still may have a point. We have to research, take out the mangled remains of the Darwinian theory and discover ghosts there. The real discover is the scientific spirit of the unknown, which only ancient Indian civilization can answer. Which again, is fine. Ancient Indian civilization postulated mathematical concepts undoubtedly, proved to be correct, but unfortunately didn’t have a word to say about human evolution.
That, fortunately or, unfortunately was Darwin’s prerogative, which seems again to be uncannily stolen from him.
They were many theories of evolution some say. But the minister is disputing only Darwin’s, spare him. But Darwin’s theory is the most acceptable. Research, say the panelists in a recent television discussion. Research, yes of course, but don’t throw caution to the winds, and yes please do not mingle religion with fantasy. Fine Vedic texts told many truths, but study them as Vedas, not as scientific texts. If you mingle science and religion,as a single entity of discourse, neither are you experiencing the spiritual nor the scientific. Yours is just a charade to debunk ALL Western postulates. Knowledge is an entity, the human civilization constantly adds and subtracts from this huge body( of knowledge ).
You are trying to subtract Mr Minister but in the most unseemly of ways, creating sensation and providing fodder for the television channels to fool us again and again.
The guffaw comes from our side. For no rhyme or reason, without any context the remark was made in the most titillating sense, to spark off a controversy and to send the media for a short timed homework. Not that the media was slow to respond. One of them immediately summoned an RSS thinker, a scientist who would make a representation on behalf of his organization, a professor and two students who looked overawed naturally in front of the luminaries. The luminaries responded at least two of them by saying that the minister was both right and wrong- a win-win situation, rounded off by remarking that more research should be done on this, to which the scientist said that research is still being done. A byte of another scientist was taken, who vehemently stated that he knew his DNA came from a monkey’s. The debate was summed up by the moderator who called for a middle position, both ” wrong and right” kind of a stand earlier taken. While Darwin must be churning ( or laughing) in his grave the curriculum makers may have a lot of work in their hands, for the ingratiating posture suits the Indian mind set beautifully, especially when govt officials and the babudom are to receive it.
The only thing is that the minister will see the monkey or the ape more disdainfully, contemptuous as he was of Darwin. The scientist/ creator debate is passe. The scientist does not come in between science and creation. But men are scientists and thinkers as well, only as the minister has proven so beautifully irrational ones.
I suppose the students must have come chuckling out of the studios. Even maybe the anchor himself but he had a task to complete. In the meantime, let the classrooms decide.