courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/
courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/
courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/
courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/
courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/
courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/
Rajnath Singh had falsely claimed
that Heisenberg’s ‘Uncertainty Principle’ was borrowed from the Vedas when
evidence points to the contrary
Mr. Singh’s address was dedicated to why the BJP is
most qualified to lead India into the future. “Friends, India is a country of
youth and every youth wants to see India as a great country in the 21st
century, but do we have the capacity and the vision which can make India
great,”
he asked. Posing the question from the dais, he went on to answer it by elaborating on how he thought the Congress was unable to shake off the colonial hangover.
he asked. Posing the question from the dais, he went on to answer it by elaborating on how he thought the Congress was unable to shake off the colonial hangover.
“Friends, I have been a student of Physics so I want
to draw your attention towards the experiment taking place in Fundamental
Physics. We all know that from mobile phones to Internet and TV, all function
on the basis of digital signals. It was possible to make digital signals when
quantum mechanics was discovered a hundred years ago,” Mr. Singh, who once taught
Physics at a postgraduate college in Mirzapur, said. “The principle through
which quantum mechanics was found was the Uncertainty Principle propounded by
Werner Heisenberg. If Heisenberg had not propounded it, then quantum mechanics
would not have come. And the digital signalling and communications of this age
would not have developed. Heisenberg learnt the Uncertainty Principle from the
philosophy of Veda of this country. Heisenberg came to India in 1929 and met
Rabindranath Tagore. In this meeting he discussed with Tagore different topics
related to Vedic philosophy and theoretical physics.”
It is quite another matter that Heisenberg had
propounded the uncertainty principle in 1927, two years before he met Tagore.
Yet, Mr. Singh persisted with the claim in his
political speech. He even laid an Indian claim to the Higgs Particle. He went
on to declare that a BJP government in power would mean unleashing the
greatness of the past. “The Congress which was formed in the time of slavery
has failed to come out of that mindset. Therefore, the Congress never had the
self-confidence to establish the real capacity of India at the world level. If
we come to power, then we assure you that the BJP has the vision which can make
India the intellectual capital of the world and even more than that it can
again make India the Jagatguru,” he said.
Mr. Singh had allowed his beliefs in mythology to
overshadow his education in Physics. A similar set of beliefs — asserting that
India’s past has the key to the future even in science and technology — are
shared by many in his party, including the Prime Minister. Sociologists say the
Hindu right wing’s belief in India’s overarching superiority in the past is
actually born out of a sense of inferiority vis-à-vis those with a westernised
outlook and education.
With a BJP-led government indeed in power, the same
chauvinist pride that Mr. Singh displayed in his 2013 speech is in full bloom
now. It was on display on October 25, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed
that India had pushed the boundaries of scientific achievement in ancient
times. “We can feel proud of what our country achieved in medical science at
one point of time. We all read about Karna in the Mahabharata. If we think a
little more, we realise that the Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his
mother’s womb. This means that genetic science was present at that time. That
is why Karna could be born outside his mother’s womb,” he said adding that Lord
Ganesha must have got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being through
plastic surgery in those days. These words uttered while addressing an audience
of doctors and scientists at the inauguration of the HN Reliance Foundation
Hospital in Mumbai, drew strong criticism from several quarters. For many who
believed that Mr. Modi had come to occupy the country’s top post to bring about
development and progress, the remarks belied that promise of a globally
competitive and forward-looking India. Unfortunately, the remarks also set the
tone for what was to follow in the coming days.
Though Mr. Modi represents the Hindu right wing, his
following is not confined to that section alone. “Modi is the symbol of the
global future of India for the upwardly mobile, outward looking and
technology-driven upper middle class among his supporters,” says Surinder
Jodhka, Professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He goes on to
add that such supporters would obviously be left feeling dismayed or even
betrayed at such displays of medieval chauvinism. Mr. Modi is deeply aware of this
contradiction and is unlikely to allow it to exist for long. “The right wing
has to reinvent itself and they know it.”
A quick learner, Mr. Modi refrained from making any
such controversial claims in his inaugural address at the Indian Science
Congress in Mumbai on January 4. However, his Cabinet colleague heading the
Ministry of Science and Technology, Harsh Vardhan, a doctor by training, went
on to say: “We discovered the Pythagoras Theorem but we gracefully allowed the
Greeks to take the credit.” Despite Mr. Modi’s course correction, the message,
it appears, has not travelled down.
An uncertain glory