Cancellation of Indian Science Congress is Intertwined with the Hindutva Project

(Editorial, January’24 Issue of Red Star)

Cancellation of Indian Science Congress is Intertwined with the Hindutva Project

Since the ascendance of Hindutva fascist regime in 2014, the Indian Science Congress (ISC) which was traditionally inaugurated by prime minister, has lost its relevance among professional scientific community and all well-meaning people. Its root cause is the despicable attempt to saffronise the ISC and tame the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) as an appendage of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), now working as per Hindutva diktats. This transformation has begun with the inauguration of the 102nd Science Congress in 2015 by Modi himself who earlier claimed while inaugurating Reliance Hospital in 2014 in Mumbai that the elephant face of the Hindu god Lord Ganesha was evidence of the existence of plastic surgery in India in ancient times. Studies and papers on Ancient Indian Vedas were presented for the first time in this ISC. However, since many scientists are unwilling to toe the Hindutva obscurantist line, and following difference between ISCA and DST, the 109th ISC scheduled to start on 3 January 2024 was abandoned as Modi government has withdrawn financial support to it.

As everybody knows, while taking advantage of the material and technological gains from the rapid advancements in S&T, using the fascist state power and led by the Hindutva political leadership, efforts are in full swing to replace science with mythology and for the propagation of pseudoscience and obscurantism throughout the entire Indian science establishment where Sangh Parivar ideologues are safely seated. And revealingly, the withdrawal of government support to ISC and its unprecedented abandonment take place when Modi government is propping up the RSS outfit Vijnana Bharati (Vibha), and more particularly at a time when Vibha is given charge as the main organiser of the 9th edition of India International Science Festival (IISF) which is scheduled in Faridabad during 17-20 January 2024.

The IISF was initiated by Modi regime in 2015 claiming to make “India the most credible centre for scientific learning” as part of the “Amrit Kaal”(the goal of “Amrit Kaal” is to build an India with all the modern infrastructure of the world by 2047). No doubt, the abandonment of Science Congress should not be viewed as an isolated issue, but an inseparable part of the ongoing saffronisation of the entire education including institutions of higher learning and research in tune with the broader Hindurashtra project. And compared with the expenditure required for ISC, the fund mobilisation for IISF from government and semi-government sources is smooth. For instance, according to reports, while the total expenditure for ISC comes to Rs. 5 crore, that for IISF is around Rs. 25 crore

Obviously, ever since the coming of the Modi government in 2014, every knowledge system in India has been subjected to the saffron offensive. In the realm of history, for instance, parallel to the neofascist “new history writing” or “historical falsification” that is rampant in ‘neofascist Europe’ today, attempt to replace history with myth is the increasing trend in education and history research in India. In the same vein, the prime minister, cabinet ministers, and scientists close to the establishment have been consciously engaged in inculcating unscientific, obscurantist and pseud-oscientific ideas. Thus, claims that cosmetic surgery, reproductive genetics, stem-cell research and test-tube technology were practiced in India thousands of years ago, Hindu god Rama flew the first aeroplane, stem cell technology was known in ancient India, mix of cow products such as cow milk, cow dung and cow urine can cure cancer, etc., have been frequently coming out from persons in responsible positions. Hindutva ideologues continue to claim that many discoveries of modern science and technology were known to ancient India.

To be precise, these and similar other statements coming from those at the higher echelons power including prime minister have their policy implications pertaining to science education and research. The agenda is not set by any obscurantist or superstitious mindset, as right from Savarkar onward and including present-day neofascists the world over, many proponents of Indian fascism today need not be theists in their personal life. Rather, the aim of spreading obscurantism including the latest forcible eruption of mass hysteria around the Ram Temple is calculated fascist move to cling on vast majority of toiling people in to a state of ignorance and superstition and divert people’s attention from the threatening and horrific corporate assault on their very sustenance, and thereby accomplish the Hindutva task. The abandonment of Indian Science Congress and propping up of the RSS affiliate Vibha and IISF led by it are to be viewed in this perspective.