Hidden figures of Indian science: 

Hidden figures of Indian science: 

Context

It is strange how India ignores some of its best intellectuals

Popular intellectuals ignored

Many of the greatest scientists that independent India has produced are little known, like hidden figures in their own homeland

• Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri in cosmology
• N. Ramachandran in protein crystal structures, and
• K. Majumdar and Dipan Ghosh who extended the quantum Heisenberg spin model

These are household names in the international scientific field, but are little promoted by the Indian scientific establishment, even neglected in graduate teaching

Serious problem

• This oversight reflects a serious problem for the sciences in India. India has numerous well-funded institutions designed to produce high-quality scientific research, but the resulting research is mostly mediocre
• What is worse is that many Indian scientists agree that the relatively small amount of world-class research they produce emerges despite the national scientific establishment, and not because of it

Flaws in the system (Expert view)

The physicist Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, until recently director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, is critical about the flaws that he sees

• Low hanging fruit: Our research institutes, despite having far greater resources, were full of clever people who were risk-averse and eased into safe, albeit good, research, but not the ground-breaking work of the earlier, colonial times. Local rewards not subject to global competition were low-hanging fruit — [these were] temptations too hard to ignore

Other issues

• System run by Scientists who have turned into bureaucrats:  Independent India’s project of building a national science establishment led to internal standards of judgment: the scientists in power certify each other’s work
• Grooming of yes-men: Dependent on political patronage for continued funding, these leaders groom loyalists and yes-men rather than cutting-edge researchers (and women are scarce)
• Set labels: In a culture where people tend to get perceived as “smart” or not, labels can stick for life: hard work yields no rewards unless one is already defined as smart. This has led to an insider culture, reproducing privileges rather than promoting excellence. It is the little-recognised lone rangers who usually produce the best work in such a system, and not the research groups that get the major share of resources
• Ignored by state: India’s scientific institutions have been a blind spot in the state’s modernisation project. They symbolise reason and are immune to criticism. Owing to a conscious decision at the time of independence, research institutions, which house a tiny elite, get most of the funding but universities get very little

Consequences of such system

• Theoretical work: All the significant work produced in India is theoretical work
• Poor experimental science: Experimental science “is very poor in India”. To succeed, experiments require at least two conditions:
  • Guarantees of long-term funding: Funding varies with the political climate: there will be money to buy equipment but no certainty that resources will flow for all the years needed to ensure significant results
  • Scientists’ collaboration with each other: Collaboration is a social process, not an intellectual one. It involves, among other things, physical labour together with others. But working with hands is not encouraged among scientists. The words used in Indian labs are: one needs hands to do experiments, not brains. Lab assistants are the hands, while scientists avoid what they regard as mere manual labour
• Far from creating a positive influence on society, Indian scientific institutions reflect the existing social make-up and even reinforce it. Bureaucrats no longer active in cutting-edge research regard themselves as capable of judging working scientists, dispensing with principles of peer review. And instead of creating a scientific esprit de corps and contributing to social debates, Indian scientists tend to shun public commentary, unless it is to serve as government spokespersons

Conclusion

Bringing to light the “hidden figures” in Indian science — without the help of a major motion picture this time — should lead to a wider discussion about the strange career of Indian science. Acknowledging internationally celebrated scientific accomplishments, and asking why they were ignored for so long, can start a useful discussion