Study on ‘religious’ scientists splits city’s scientific community

Dr Aniket Sule, reader and academic coordinator of astronomy Olympiad at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), said that in India, scientists analyse everything that is happening inside the lab, but “unfortunately, the influence of parental pressure” is such that they feel there is a difference between what they do inside the lab and what they do rest of the day. “Hence globally, while just 10 per cent scientists are religious, the numbers are higher in India. It’s unfortunate that many Indian scientists don’t put their analytical mind in matters of faith,” said Sule.

The study, which surveyed 1,763 Indian and 1,581 UK scientists, states that 65 per cent of UK scientists claimed they did not belong to any religion as compared to just six per cent in India.

“Some of our surprising findings are that 32 per cent of Indian scientists attend religious services regularly, once a month or more, as compared to 12 per cent of UK scientists,” said Prof Elaine Howard Ecklund, principal investigator of the study from Rice University, in an email interview.

According to IIT Bombay Prof Kavi Arya, several scientists come from backgrounds where they have grown up in an environment of religious rituals. “So, when scientists in India say they are religious and that they practise religious rituals, they are mostly referring to social, cultural and anthropological practices that one engages in India. Many of us view them as social and cultural occasions. It essentially reflects a desire to connect to one’s roots and is not in conflict with scientific reason. In fact, my grandfather was a devoted Vedantist who strongly believed that not even religion should escape the scrutiny of reason,” says Arya.

Dr Govind Swarup, one of the pioneer’s of radio astronomy and former director of National Centre for Radio Astrophysics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), says that in India, just because scientists participate in religious services or traditional activities, it does not imply they are religious. “The survey says that 32 per cent regularly participate in religious services in India, which is a small number. I personally don’t believe in God. Also, I have interacted with scientists in India and globally, and many don’t discuss religion at all. I only believe that nature is the higher power, it’s mysterious, and one of these days, we could even find life on Mars,” Swarup says.

Dr Naba Mondal, senior professor at TIFR, says, “To me, religion is a very personal affair. It is someone’s personal belief or view and the more it remains personal, the better it is. It should not hurt anyone.”

According to the survey, 73 per cent of Indian scientists responded that there are basic truths in many religions, as compared to 49 per cent in UK.

“I work in the field of astronomy and the Sun, hence for me, the Sun is my God. But I am basically an agnostic. In my view, one should pray whenever one sees any dimension of divinity in nature and it could be the dazzling colours of the sky at sunrise and sunset,” says Dr S M Chitre, chairman, academic board at the Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences (CBS), a joint initiative between the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Mumbai University.

mihika.basu@expressindia.com