Indian science has been possessing a humongous flair for many centuriesin front of the global scientific landscape. And it took many different pathways throughout its locomotion and got undulated like anything many a time. As far as national reconstruction is concerned, Subhas Chandra Bose was a keen seeker of scientific and technological means to extirpate ground-level poverty with much-improved healthcare and education by reorienting municipal corporations. Netaji was hugely influenced by Prof Meghnad Saha and Dr M Visvesvaraya during his extensive search for the aforesaid solution. In this connection, Bose himself had added Prof Saha in his National Planning Commission. In the presence of Bose, in Bombay, during the discussion of the action plan, all the members focused on the topic of national revamping in the context of resources, industrialization, and implementation of science and technology. Being a key organizer, Bose conducted a conference including almost all the contemporary top-notch Indian scientists which was attended by Visvesvaraya himself. In response to the question of Prof Saha at the 3rd Annual General Meeting of the Indian Science News Association (ISNA) presided by Bose, he articulated an intelligible reply by mentioning his vision of modern and progressive India based on the substructure of scientific headway and ideals. Netaji emphasized the possibility of national reconstruction only by directly mitigating scientific knowledge.
In 1935, Prof Saha under the aegis of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and many other valiant scientific leaders, started the Indian Science News Association (ISNA) to publish the journal Science and Culture by following the pattern of the famous British journal Nature and the American journal Science, promulgating that it would explicate modern science in non-technical language and uphold a structured application of science to India-centric issues. Prof Saha sent the very first copy of Science and Culture to eminent personalities of that era including Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who was then at Karlsbad, Germany, due to some unavoidable health issues. He wrote in appreciation:
“The appearance of Science and Culture is to be warmly welcomed not only by those, who are interested in abstract sciences but also by those who are concerned with nation-building in practice. Whatever might have been the views of our older ‘Nation Builders’, we younger folk approach the task of nation-building in a thoroughly scientific spirit and we desire to be armed with all the knowledge which modern science and culture can afford us.”
He again pronounced:
“It is not possible however, for political workers with their unending preoccupations to glean that knowledge themselves. It is therefore, for scientists and scientific investigators to come to their rescue”.
Prof Saha, an acclaimed physicist, was senior to Bose at the Presidency College and the two remained in touch thereon. Their ideas on several points converged as Bose had a direct entry into active politics then. Prof Saha had advocated the urgency for national planning in the columns of his journal, Science and Culture. Bose, as the Congress president, piloted the idea of establishing the National Planning Committee (NPC) at the Haripura session of the Indian National Congress in 1938 and formally invited Saha to join the process. NPC, according to historian Robert S Anderson, was to be originally chaired by Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya who had already demonstrated the power of industrialization through economic planning in Mysore. Prof Saha then convinced Visvesvaraya not to accept the offer as the panel would otherwise be seen as an academic exercise within the Congress party, a section of which was opposed to heavy industries. Thus, Bose wrote to Nehru to head NPC for it to be a success.
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When Prof Saha came back to Calcutta, he started to communicate with the members of the National Planning Committee and other powerful politicians and Bose actively supported him in many aspects. Bose was then the President of the Indian National Congress, and he was cordially invited to be the Chief Guest at the 3rd Annual General Meeting of the Indian Science News Association (ISNA), where the matter of forming a National Planning Committee had been thoroughly discussed for the viable utilization of science and technology in a much bigger scale. The National Planning Committee so formed engaged Prof Saha in many vital positions in the Committee such as the Chairman of the NPC’s Power and Fuel Subcommittee and a member of the River Transport and Irrigation Subcommittee.
When the journal Science and Culture was founded in the colonial period ruled by the British Empire, Prof Saha was hugely curious to vent his novel ideas and thoughts that predated the formation of ISNA. Bose had already presided over the third annual meeting of the ISNA. Syama Prasad Mookerjee was well-known for his anti-British ideology and was a prominent member of the Hindu Mahasabha. That is why Bose’s intercession in the scientific fraternity’s high-profile decision-level meeting has opened up an indispensable vista in the expansive domain of Indian science and technology.
Again, Bose played a key role in the circumference of science and its various applications. Under his direct guidance, NPC made a broad outline as well as sector-wise techniques by selecting the problem domains and probable solutions. For example, it laid down that all key industries such as defence, which must be state-owned, while public utilities could be owned by some organ of the state like a local board or public trust. State ownership should be through an autonomous public trust to ensure public ownership and control while avoiding inefficiencies associated with full state control. Key problem areas were identified in different sectors, like the need for developing an indigenous drug industry and nitrogen fertilizers were emphasized by the sub-committee on chemical industries. The panel recommended setting up a National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) which is now a celebrated yet notable organization of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), government of India, at Pune. To tackle undernutrition and malnutrition, the sub-committee on population suggested the formation of a Central Nutrition Board and regional boards attached to it, and the propagation of modern birth control methods. Such ideas, along with the guiding principles laid in the NPC report, formed the starting point of the Planning Commission in free India under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose himself.
Bose classified industries into three different categories, namely large-scale or heavy industries, medium-scale, and cottage industries. Heavy industries are immensely important for rapid economic development. Whenever the category of large-scale industries is concerned, mother industries produce the exact means of production or make other industries run successfully and these are essential metals, heavy chemicals, hardware machineries, and communication industries like railways, telephone, and radio. He was keen and much in favor of large-scale industries though he had never lost sight of cottage and small industries in an underdeveloped country like India. As long as the contribution of Bose in the domain of economic sciences is considered, Netaji was a true pioneer in terms of economic planning based on the applications of science and technology.
Some science stalwarts of India from late 19th-early 20th century, who succeeded despite colonialsim, from left, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya and Prof Meghnad Saha
The discernment of Bose regarding the dire importance of science and technology in nation-building was prodigious in every direction. His views in the vast domain of economics, politics, and even spirituality were pellucid throughout. In this context, he stated, “Many in our political system do not realize this in our country even today — the importance of research and innovation for India to continue its social and economic development”.
Again, he said, “We, who are practical politicians, need your help, who are scientists, in the shape of ideas. We can, in turn, propagate these ideas & can help to translate these ideas into reality. What is wanted is far-reaching cooperation between science and politics”.
Nowadays, India is passing through such a phase when the existence of mainstream politicians is only in a trifling quantity who are keen to engage themselves with science and technology pertinently and in an effective manner. The need for novel inventions and discoveries by channeling them through ascending entrepreneurs and various government programmes or initiatives for social good and economic development has somewhat not been acknowledged, and sometimes not even conceded by the representatives of the political fraternity. Even if a section of them wishes to confess based on their own understanding, they want to keep a significant extent of administrative hold over this.
In this circumstance, Netaji has some views which utter as follows:
“So far as technical research is concerned, we shall all agree that it should be free from governmental control of every kind. It is only in this unfortunate country that government servants are entrusted with scientific research on receipt of princely salaries and we know very well what results have been obtained therefrom.”
As per Bose, fundamental and industrial research should be completely devoid of governmental dominance. The paucity of autonomy in our research organizations is the key impediment in terms of their further progression.
In the end, it is to be stated that the very idea of the paramount importance of science and technology and its fruitful implementation quaffed by Bose was prodigious in true sense even after 75 years of India’s independence in front of multiple slants of global scientific and technological coliseum.
*The writer, currently working at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi, holds an MTech in Materials Science and Nanotechnology from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Earlier, he worked as a Researcher (R&D) with BR Specialities LLP, a chemical manufacturing enterprise based in New Delhi. He can be reached at atrimallick@gmail.com.
