Reclaiming Modern Science for Third World Progressive Social Movements

Reclaiming Modern Science for Third World Progressive Social Movements Metro Nanda It is precisely the critical dimension of science movements in India which has been silenced by the new critiques of science, Modern science has been given a middle name - 'westen' - which casts a long shadow of doubt on its validity and usefulness. There are three basic issues which are basic to the understanding of Indian science 'wars': one, the flawed logic of treating the criteria of validity of all knowledge as internal to the cultural context; two, the location of postcolonial intellectuals in the transnational academic networks that have given epistemological anti-imperialism so much respectability, and finally, the necessity of a scientific worldview for the advancement of equality and justice for all. ON behalf of all progressive science move- But before I get to all that, I first want to seen as constitutive of science. The whole ments in my native India and elsewhere that clear up a misconception widely shared by exercise of detecting bias makes sense only dare to question the inherited traditions of left-inclined intellectuals and activists. It is if there is a possibility of correcting these their own society in the light of a modern generally believed that to see truth as a social biases and reaching at more objective, less scientific worldview, I want to return to their construct of powers-that-be is somehow biased knowledge. postcolontal sponsors the cluster of theories progressive, that it is a gift to the poor, the This change in the project of the left that go under the name of 'ethno-sciences,' disenfranchised and the non-western 'others.' intellectuals is most sharply critiqued by 'standpoint epistemologies', and "situated The idea seems to be that once it can be none other than Noam Chomsky. There was knowledges' - theories that claim that modem shown how power creates truth, the a time not too long ago, Chomsky reminds science is simply an ethnoscience of the disenpowered will no longer feel compelled us, when left intellectuals many of whom west, its truths not any more rational and to live by the dictates of the powerful. They with training in natural sciences, took an universal than any other local knowledge of will create their own truths, and actually active part in the working class culture of any other culture. On behalf of all those challenge the scientific objectivity with the day and wrote books on science, dogged rationalists in the third world who presumably 'stronger' objectivity that seeks mathematics, philosophy and other topics refuse to forswear the Enlightenment's truths grounded in their own lives. (The idea for the general public. The point behind promise of arbitrary authority giving way to knowledge from the standpoint of the these efforts was to compensate for the class publicly testable reasons, I want to return oppressed leads to strong objectivity is from character of the cultural institutions; to make to their postmodern authors the theories that Sandra Harding.) Seeing "truth" as a cultural up for the opportunities for intellectual growth claim that reason itself is constituted by construct amounts to, as one anthropologist that were denied to working people. But arbitrary authority and Enlightenment itself put it, giving 'permission' to the other to be today. Chomsky points out, and I quote, "the a ruse for western colonialism. On behalf of different, to live by their own lights. left intellectuals deprive the oppressed people all those critical intellectuals who hold on But there is poison in this gift. For all its not only the joys of understanding and insight, to their traditional mission of telling the truth radical bluster, the permission to be different but also tools of emancipation, informing behind ideological appearances, I want to is a big cop out for left intellectuals, for it them that the project of Enlightenment is return to the relativists the theories that deny frees them from the hard, slow and patient dead, that we must abandon the illusions of that there is any truth to be found behind task of helping the underprivileged 'others' science and rationality - a message that will appearances, and that truth itself is an to critically examine and revise their own gladden the hearts of the powerful, delighted ideology, a label that the powerful attach to common sense taken-for-granted assump- to use these instruments for their own use". their own self-serving perspectives in order tions in the light of better, less false and yes, The powerful, moreover, will also be to normalise them. scientific knowledge. The idea that truth delighted to know, Chomsky continues, that These ideas - one, that modern science is itself is a social construct undercuts the very science is inherently a knowledge of those an ethno-science of the west, and two, that grounds for any progressive social critique in power, as the constructivist critics insist, scientific reasoning and the very content of of the status quo. By making the shared for then any challenge to the authority of the science are Eurocentric constructs complicit prejudices and passions of any society as boss becomes a violation of rationality itself. in western imperialism - derive from the constitutive of not only the questions a society Indeed, if any evidence of the slide in the new, 'strong' social and cultural studies of can ask, but also of the answers that are self-understanding of left intellectuals as science that have to come to dominate the possible, all the way down to the very educators to defenders of ignorance in the academic left thinking on these matters. This conceptual structures, reasoning and methods name of popular culture is needed, one has logic relativises the validity of scientific on which the answers are based upon, social only to go through say, the contributions of knowledge of the natural world, and even construction is a recipe not for a progressive Andrew Ross in the recent issue of Social the kind of objects that exist in the natural critique of the prejudices and passions, but Text made famous by Alan Sokal. Or check world itself, to the prevailing social relations a means of actually privileging, legitimising, out a recent issue of New York Review of and cultural meanings. Instead of critically or at the very minimum, not challenging Books in which Richard Lewontin dismisses understanding how social institutions, power these prejudices and passions. There is a late Carl Sagan's life long passion for relations and cultural meanings bring us name for such a project, it is called treason popularising science. Lewontin, one of the closer or farther from facts of the matter, the of the intellectuals, treason against truth and left's own, sees Sagan's scientific expla- constructivists claim to study how the social universalism in favour of familiar, comforting nations of the cosmos to be as much a prejudices of the day make up the so-called and parochial stories which are useful to construct of the elite culture of physics which, 'fact'. The social does not interact and believe in. Lest I be misunderstood, let me he claims, is based as much on blind, untested shape the scientific, but the social con- emphasise that I am not saying that science faith in the authority of the experts, as the stitutes the scientific method, the scientific should not be scrutinised for its ideological crtationism of Arkansas dirt-farmer is based is social. biases, but only that biases should not be upon untested faith in their own non-elite Economic and Political Weekly April 18, 1998 915 organic experts, the church/the media and intellectuals, more than a decade ago, that postcolonial friends have taken: that is to so on. So, on Lewontin's reading, when I first heard the ideas that are now exercising say, we never confused science as a social science enthusiasts like Sagan try to exorcise the New York science warriors. institution for science as a method of arriving the demons, the witches and UFOs, they To get a fuller flavour of how the debates at partial and provisional but the best only think they are replacing ignorance with over science and rationality have played out corroborated accounts of reality. Because truth, but they are actually only imposing in third world, come with me to New Delhi. we did not make the very criteria of truth physics' elite culture on popular culture. Pan of what I am going to say is as emerging out of the admittedly patriarchal, Regardless of how scientists and science autobiographical. I generally don't like to western-colonial and capitalist institions in educators themselves see their own work, dwell upon personal experience but I do which modern science was born and raised, regardless of how much they want to ally believe that this experience captures an we were able to retain the critical potential themselves with the disadvantaged masses, important turning point in the history of of science, they cannot but be carriers of elitism, for the Indian left when the earlier belief in the value It is precisely this critical dimension of validity of their knowledge derives from of science for progressive change began to science movements in India that has been certain elitist assumptions and their own give way to a suspicion of science. silenced by the new critiques of science. elite position in the society. I bring up It was in 1978 that I moved to New Delhi Modern science has been given a middle Lewontin here because, as we will see, a very from a smaller and rather provincial city to name- 'western' - which casts along shadow similar reasoning operates in third world do my PhD in biotechnology at Indian of doubt on its validity and usefulness: the context where scientists are accused of Institute of Technology.

Load more