Before I joined University of Hyderabad, I was of the opinion that due to the nature of their discipline, students of sciences would tend to be rational, progressive and objective in their non-academic lives as well.
How wrong I was.
In India, science as a discipline is very different from science as a way of thought.
People learn science in a very industrial way. One of the tenets of science would be to question everything and anything (including science itself). Not in India. Science is just swallowed whole, without questioning anything. Thus, rationality is replaced by rigidity.
The aim in scientific education here is that students are taught how to get results and not to understand why something works in a particular fashion. Science students are like workers at a conveyor belt. They know their job, but don't know what the end product might be, they don't know what the next guy's job is.
Another travesty is that the top echelons of scientific education have been occupied by conservative, Brahminical people. Therefore, these avenues of progress are in fact a throw back to ancient and irrational practices.
Perhaps this is not a phenomenon limited to academia.
About a year ago, I witnessed a room of scientists enthusiastically applauding a Central minister who suggested that global warming and threats from emissions were a hoax peddled by the West to stop Eastern countries and India in specific from developing.
The top boss of ISRO, India's space research organisation, makes visits to a temple and offers gratitude to the gods after every successful satellite launch.
How wrong I was.
In India, science as a discipline is very different from science as a way of thought.
People learn science in a very industrial way. One of the tenets of science would be to question everything and anything (including science itself). Not in India. Science is just swallowed whole, without questioning anything. Thus, rationality is replaced by rigidity.
The aim in scientific education here is that students are taught how to get results and not to understand why something works in a particular fashion. Science students are like workers at a conveyor belt. They know their job, but don't know what the end product might be, they don't know what the next guy's job is.
Another travesty is that the top echelons of scientific education have been occupied by conservative, Brahminical people. Therefore, these avenues of progress are in fact a throw back to ancient and irrational practices.
Perhaps this is not a phenomenon limited to academia.
About a year ago, I witnessed a room of scientists enthusiastically applauding a Central minister who suggested that global warming and threats from emissions were a hoax peddled by the West to stop Eastern countries and India in specific from developing.
The top boss of ISRO, India's space research organisation, makes visits to a temple and offers gratitude to the gods after every successful satellite launch.
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