Pioneer Scientists in Pre‐Independance India

MAY 01, 1986

The lives of six physicists, who played important roles as ‘tribal leaders’ in establishing scientific institutions, may help to provide an answer to the question: Why pursue basic research in a less developed country?

DOI: 10.1063/1.881025

William A. Blanpied

The conviction that scientific rationality can lead to intellectual liberation and thus convey benefits to a society that are at least as important as the material benefits derived from research has been central to Western thinking since the 17th century. That conviction is evident, for example, in the career of Benjamin Franklin, and is reflected in most of the official documents associated with the establishment of the American Republic. Studies by several scholars—most notably Joseph Needham in his Science and Civilization in China—indicate that the development of science in other societies has also been deeply rooted in a cultural tradition of tolerance. If so, then it can be argued that neither modern science nor the conditions required to capture its tangible benefits can thrive in any society unless science can be harmonized with the cultural traditions of that society.

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More about the authors

William A. Blanpied, NSF, New Delhi.