Padma Bhushan and UNESCO’s Kalinga Award awardee, Prof. Dr. Shri. Jayant V. Narlikar, an eminent Cosmologist, Scientist, Professor, Writer, Visionary and Founder Director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai has made his landmark achievement, by putting his thoughts in words and made it available to the lay man with this book. Before making any remarks on his book, I would like to mention how fortunate we are to get his thoughts in the form of a book. He has authored several books in both fiction and non-fiction categories in English, Hindi as well as Marathi languages.
Over here, I am going to write about the book that I just finished reading, “the Scientific Edge”, published by Penguin Random House India Books, well published in 2003 i.e., two decades back. The book is an excellent collection of thoughts about science from Vedic to early 21st century.
The book is divided into three categories namely: (i) India’s
Science in a Historical Context; (ii) Learning to Live in the Age of Science;
and (iii) The future of Science in India.
The book begins with, the Science in India through ancient
times and dates to the era, while Science was an important aspect of life
for Indians. The author has given enormous, elaborate quotes and examples from
the ancient texts and manuscripts while discussing this section. There are quotes
from Bhagwat Gita, Vedas, Samhitas and many more. While reading these pages
it gives a lucid picture of authors insight through these texts. And the way he
has reviewed through, gets the reader on toes as he reveals his thoughts one
after the other. He has also stated that in the past Indians were passing the
legacy of knowledge via oral methods and thus, lack of written documents lags India
behind in claiming the legacy of the same. Further, most texts are written in
poetic or literary form rather than pellucid phrases, which causes ambiguity
while outlining the meaning of the same.
In the next section, the author has critically discussed
about the hurdles that has impeded progress in science over the ages in India
along with pointing out on the serious misconceptions that has been seeded regarding what belongs to India and what has been inherited from the west,
along with how science fiction and superstitions has overruled the real essence
of science. He has asserted many instances on how other civilizations flourished
during the contemporary times in comparison to India and vice-versa at other times.
In these chapters he has advocated for the Britishers and other foreign
invaders for making India achieve a few milestones during the era in science.
He has also given instances on how science always evolves on needs of mankind,
rather than just curiosity.
In the last section of the book, the author discusses about
the current scenario of science in India as compared to globe. I would like to
accord here that despite the book is written a couple of decades back, most of the
hurdles are still as prevalent as then and few of them has been even worse.
However, not being a book spoiler over here, I won’t mention any of the author’s
key thoughts and I believe as Prof. Narlikar has left, and I too will leave the
end thought about the book as open ended and will welcome thoughts from people
who have either already read the book or will after reading the review. Additionally,
too few as a disclaimer I will mention that this book might look anti-religion,
but one must understand and even as author tries to put Science and Religion can’t
go hand in hand and while reading a book on science one must be incredibly open minded.
PS: This is my first ever
blog on Book Review and I know that being an amateur in review as well as blog
writing and this isn’t great. But I am open to all the suggestions about my
writing skills, so please do mention them in the comments. Also, please mention
the thoughts on books and authors in the comments section too.
Link to purchase the book via Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/Scientific-Edge-Indian-Scientist-Modern/dp/0143030280
Book Cover Page Picture Courtesy: Amazon India
J. V. Narlikar's Image Courtesy: Getty Images
