While science is always definitive, its use is a political decision
Chandrayaan 3 is just days away from making a historic landing on the moon. The third lunar mission of the Indian space programme is a technological demonstration project, which aims to drop a lander and a rover on the moon for further exploration of our lone satellite.
If successful, this mission could ensure India a membership to an exclusive club that has just three countries so far—the US, the erstwhile Soviet Union and China.
It will not just be a demonstration of India’s technological power, but also a political weapon with massive advantage in an electoral system. These rare occasions also remind one that science is a political tool—while science is always definitive, its use is a political decision.
And such high-profile demonstrations of space technology or even military power, which profile a powerful nation or mark its entry into an exclusive club, are always targeted at electorates.
In recent years, during the tenures of various prime ministers, there have been many such decisions. These range from testing nuclear explosives to firing long-range missiles; from sending the first lunar mission to flying by Mars; and from demonstrating anti-satellite missiles to carrying out surgical strikes. These scientific missions usually instil strong feelings among citizens. Expectedly, they are used as electoral weapons.
The politicisation of scientific feats is not limited to contemporary time. There is always the narrative of an advanced ancient civilisation perpetuating our perceived superiority.
When political leadership talks about the elephant-headed Ganesh demonstrating the existence of “plastic surgery”, or of Sanjay giving an account of the Mahabharata war to Dhritarashtra being the proof of internet in ancient India, it lends to the narrative that muscular technological acumen is natural to the Indian civilisation.
When we hear about our ancient technological feats, we always get a sense of owning for thousands of years all the modern knowledge that countries are just mastering now. This fits perfectly into the nationalistic political agenda. One can also argue that this narrative negates our inferiority complex and gives us a false sense of superiority.
But there is not much mainstreaming of our ancient feats in terms of the technologies or ways that we still are struggling to master. For instance, the impeccable drainage system in ancient India or even the safe sanitation practices.
Such scientific heritage is not talked about much by politicians, even though making India open defecation free is by far the most visible development agenda item taken up by the Prime Minister.
Similarly, towards the end of last year, the Meghalaya government rolled out a drone service to deliver essential medicines to inaccessible villages. Many villages for the first time are getting life-saving medicines by drones.
But this feat has not been celebrated much as a political agenda. Rather, far away in Delhi, drone swarms are being projected as spectacular displays of “power”. Use of drones by the Indian military is being touted as India is becoming 21st century warfare-ready.
Historically, science and politics were not just intertwined but often also positioned on warring sides. Scientists questioned the status quo that used to hold the political narrative or structure at various points in history.
In these battles, they have won by holding their ground and societies have discarded political narratives based on either false science or on using scientific feats of lesser good to common living. In an electoral democracy, when science has been politicised, it is time for the contemporary society to dictate which science, and whose version, should be on the agenda.
DTE Coverage: Will India strike gold with Chandrayaan-3?
This was first published in the 16-31 August, 2023 print edition of Down To Earth
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