Scientists Issue Statement Against Intolerance and Rejection of Reason
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ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Scientists Issue Statement Against Intolerance and Rejection of Reason Vol. 50, Issue No. 44, 31 Oct, 2015 The scientific community is deeply concerned with the climate of intolerance, and the ways in which science and reason are being eroded in the country. The scientific community is deeply concerned with the climate of intolerance, and the ways in which science and reason are being eroded in the country. It is the same climate of intolerance, and rejection of reason that has led to the lynching in Dadri of Mohammad Akhlaq Saifi and the assassinations of Prof Kalburgi, Dr Narendra Dabholkar and Shri Govind Pansare. All three fought against superstition and obscurantism to build a scientific temper in our society. Prof Kalburgi was a renowned scholar and an authority on the Vachana literature associated with the 12th-century reformer Basava, who opposed institutionalised religion, caste and gender discrimination. Similarly, Dr Dabholkar and Shri Pansare promoted scientific temper through their fight against superstition and blind faith. The Indian Constitution in Article 51 A (h) demands, as a part of the fundamental duties of the citizens, that we '...develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform'. Unfortunately, what we are witnessing instead is the active promotion of irrational and sectarian thought by important functionaries of the government. The Indian civilisation is a truly plural one. We have always had many practices and communities that have allowed space for each other; we celebrate the festivals and anniversaries of all faiths. This unity and peace has now been disturbed by a rash of bigoted acts, attacks on minorities and Dalits, which show no signs of abating. The writers have shown the way with their protests. We scientists now join our voices to theirs, to assert that the Indian people will not accept such attacks on reason, science and our plural culture. We reject the destructive narrow view of India that seeks to dictate what people will wear, think, eat and who they will love. We appeal to all other sections of society to raise their voice against the assault on reason and scientific temper we are witnessing in India today. The views expressed in the statement are individual and do not reflect views of the institution a signatory is affiliated to. 1. Dr Alladi Sitaram Visiting Professor, Chennai Mathematical Institute; Professor Emeritus, ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru 2. Dr Ashoke Sen, Padma Bhushan, Fellow of Royal Society (FRS), Distinguished Professor, Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad 3. Dr Ashok Jain, Former Director, National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi 4. Dr A Gopalakrishnan, Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Government of India 5. Dr D Balasubramanian, Padma Shri Research Director, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, & former Director Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad 6. Dr Madabusi Raghunathan, Padma Bhushan, Fellow of Royal Society (FRS), Professor, National Centre for Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai 7. Dr PM Bhargava, Padma Bhushan, Former Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad (one of the original signatories to the 1981 Scientific Temper Statement) 8. Dr P Balaram, Padma Bhushan, Former Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 9. Dr Satyajit Mayor, Foreign Associate, US National Science Academy, Director, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 10. Dr Spenta Wadia, Emeritus Professor and Founding Director, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 11. Dr AP Balachandran, Joel Dorman Steele Professor of Physics (Emeritus), Physics Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA. 12. Dr Abhishek Dhar, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 13. Dr Alak K Ray, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 14. Dr Alok Laddha, Chennai Mathematics Institute, Bangalore 15. Dr Amit Sengupta, National Convenor, Peoples Health Movement 16. Dr Anna George, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi 17. Dr Arnab Bhattacharya, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 18. Dr Arvind, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali 19. Dr Ashvin Vishvanath, University of California-Berkeley, USA 20. Dr Avinash Dhar, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 21. Dr B Ravindran, Institute for Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar 22. Dr BLS Prakasa Rao, CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, Hyderabad 23. Dr B Ananthanarayan, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 24. Dr B Rajeev, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore 25. Dr B Ekbal, Former Vice Chancellor, Kerala University 26. Dr B Sury, Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru 27. Dr Chandrasekhar Khare, Fellow of Royal Society, Professor of Mathematics, University of California-Los Angeles, USA, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research 28. Mr D Raghunandan, Director, Centre of Technology and Development, New Delhi 29. Dr DP Sen Gupta, Visiting Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru 30. Dr Debashis Ghoshal, School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Delhi. 31. Dr Dhruv Raina, Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 32. Dr Dilip Ahuja, Profesor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru 33. Dr Dinesh Abrol, Institute of Studies in Industrial. Development, New Delhi 34. Dr Dipendra Prasad, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 35. Dr Firoza Sutaria, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru 36. Dr Gadadhar Misra, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 37. Dr Gautam Mandal, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 38. Dr Hema Murthy, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai 39. Dr Joseph Samuel, Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru 40. Dr Justin David, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 41. Dr Kapil Paranjape, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali 42. Dr LS Shashidhara, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune 43. Dr Leena ChandranWadia, Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai 44. Dr MG Narasimhan, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru 45. Dr MRN Murthy, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 46. Dr MVN Murthy, Professor Emeritus, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai 47. Dr Madan Rao, Raman Research Institute and NCBS-TIFR, Bengaluru 48. Dr Mangal C Mahato, Department of Physics, North East Hill University, Shillong 49. Dr Nilmani Mathur, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 50. Dr P Ajith, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 51. Dr Pallab Basu, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 52. Dr Partha P Majumder, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani 53. Dr Parthib Basu, Department of Zoology, Calcutta University, Kolkata 54. Mr Prabir Purkayastha, Chairperson, Knowledge Commons, New Delhi 55. Dr Prajit K Basu, Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hyderabad 56. Dr Prajval Shastri, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru 57. Dr Pramathanath Sastry, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai 58. Dr Pravabati Chinganbam, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru 59. Dr Probal Choudhuri, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata 60. Dr Purushottam Kulkarni, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai 61. Dr R Ramanujam, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai 62. Dr R Shankar, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai 63. Dr Rahul Roy, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi 64. Dr Rajat Tandon, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Hyderabad 65. Dr Rajesh Gopakumar, Director, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 66. Dr Rama Govindarajan, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad 67. Dr Ranjini Bandyopadhyay, Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru 68. Dr Ravinder Banyal, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru 69. Dr Riddhi Shah, School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 70. Dr Ronnie Sebastian, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune 71. Dr Rukmini Dey, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 72. Dr S Chakrabarti, Department of Chemistry, Calcutta University, Kolkata 73. Dr S Ranganathan, National Institute of Advanced Studies Bengaluru 74. Dr Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Formerly Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru; and President All India Peoples Science Network 75. Dr Sachindeo Vaidya, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 76. Dr Samriddhi Sankar Ray, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 77. Dr Sandeep Krishna, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 78. Dr Sanjib Sabhapandit, Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru 79. Dr Santanu Datta, Chief Scientific Officer, BUGWORKS Inc., Bengaluru 80. Dr Satyajit Rath, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi 81. Dr Saumen Datta, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 82. Dr Shamsher Singh, Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru 83. Dr Sharada Srinivasan, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru 84. Dr Shiraz Naval Minwalla, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 85. Dr Shrikrishna, G Dani Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai 86. Dr Shyamala Mani, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 87. Dr Siva Athreya, Indian Statistical Institute,