ADDRESS BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE EASTERN CENTER FOR RADIO ASTROPHYSICS (ECRA)

CALCUTTA, OCTOBER 8, 1993

This morning I was at a special Birth Centenary Celebration function of Prof. Meghnath Saha organized by the Saha Institute of Nuclear physics. It is a happy co-incidence that I should be inaugurating the Eastern Center of Radio Astrophysics the same day at Maghnath Saha Bhavan at the University of Calcutta. I deep it a great honour to have been offered the opportunity of giving a double tribute to this great Indian scientist on his birth centenary.

The establishment of the Easter Center for Radio Astrophysics is a fulfillment of one of Prof. Saha’s dreams. As early as 1937 he, with visionary insight, made a suggestion for a stratosphere solar observatory to photograph the solar spectrum. It was certainly a revolutionary idea in those days. In 1955 he wrote in the visitor’s book at the Field Station at Haringhata of IRPE of the Calcutta University indicating his desire to open a Radio Astronomy section at the Field Stations. ECRA is to-day fulfilling his dream during the centenary year.
               
I believe that opening of ECRA signals the beginning of a new era of research in astronomy and astrophysics in India, particularly in Eastern India. There are some special features with regard to this project. It involves close co-operation among a number of institutions and research scientists. This is a rare phenomenon in our country famous for its sturdy and unruly individualism. The late Mr. Krishna Menon once said that there was a curious social arithmetic in our country by which 2+2 did not make four but zero, because we lack fellowship. This, I am afraid, it true to science also. There are any number of fellowships available but still we lack fellowship in working together in a laboratory or in an institution. In this context it is extra-ordinary and highly commendable that so many important and prestigious institutions have come together in ECRA for carrying out ambitious programmes in radio astronomy and astrophysics. May I congratulate the Calcutta University, the Jadhavpur University, the Kalyani University, the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and the S.N. Bose Centre for Basics for joining and combining together to set up ECRA. I understand that other Universities and Centres are expected to join this Centre. The remarkable fusion of resources and talents is bound to release tremendous scientific energy with which India will be able to storm the heavens and reach the unreachable stars. From my days in the Ministry of Science and Technology when I had the pleasure of close association with Dr. A.P. Mitra, I have been aware of the work that is going on in our laboratories and Universities and in the chain of observational facilities in the field of astronomy and astrophysics.

The stage of development that we in India have achieved in space science and technology, and in astronomy and astrophysics is already remarkable. I believe the India mind is particularly adept in soaring high in the immensity of space and outer space and among planets and stars. The best India minds are of the kind that the poet sang of :

                “ I have a lover that is flesh,
                 And a lover that is sprite.
                 To-day I lie down with the finite,
                 Tomorrow with the infinite.”

Our problems are of such nature and magnitude that we have to reach out to the stars in order to improve the lot of the common man on earth, and we have to climb the commanding height of science and technology if we are to bring to the millions of our people the benefits of even the smaller technologies.
                               
Prof. Saha had spelt out his philosophy of science and his philosophy of life in the following words in 1945: “The philosophy of kindliness and service to our fellowmen was preached by all founders of great religions, and not doubt some great kings and ministers of religions in every country and at all ages tried to give effect to this philosophy. But the efforts were not successful, for the simple reason that the methods of production of commodities were too inefficient to yield plenty to all which is an indispensable condition for practical altruism. We can, therefore, hold that so far as individual life is concerned, science has achieved a target aimed at by the great founders of religions in advanced countries of the world.”
                               
It is, however, tragic that while science has reached a point of development when the aims of the great founders of religions can be realized in material terms, it has also pursued a path that is destructive, and also a path that multiplies human wants and the means of pandering to them in a manner that is self-destructive. It is here that we have to bring in the concept of “scientific humanism” that Jawaharlal Nehru expounded, and, in a deeper sense, the philosophy that Mahatma Gandhi preached and practiced. I am afraid that while talking about astronomy and astrophysics, and space, planets, and the stars one cannot avoid flights of metaphysics. At the same time one has to hold on firmly to the facts of the lowly but glorious life of man on earth. Man’s condition, his needs, his problems, his agonies and his aspirations on earth are the ultimate subject matter of the study and understanding of celestial bodies. As Geothe put it in his “Faust”:
                “ I care not for the sun and the stars
                 I see but man in torment.”

But we have to care for the sun and the stars for the ultimate benefit of man in torment. Indeed to-day we have to see the sun and the stars and study and unravel their mysteries so that man in torment is liberated. It is in India and in the vast third world that the majority of the suffering millions live . Our research can be used for collaborating with scientists in the third world for the advance of knowledge and the elimination of poverty and misery in the third world. I am sure this Eastern Centre for Radio Astrophysics will inaugurate a new era not only in the advancement of science but in the application of science for the resolution of the problems of the people. I wish this Centre all success in the realisation of its ambitious targets.