Opinion Education visionary

India is perhaps unique in having a strong movement of indigenously supported social organisations engaged in constructive work aimed at the socio-economic uplift of the poor. In the first couple of decades after Independence,such work mainly involved Gandhians like Devendra Kumar in Wardha or Ravindra Upadhyaya in Assam working with grassroots cooperatives in khadi and village industries,and a small stream of communists such as A.K. Gopalan,who organised workers in the beedi and coffee industries,founding famous workers’ cooperatives like the Coffee Board and Ganesh Bidi.

In the 1970s,a new breed of socially committed intellectuals emerged who would play a transformative role in civil society,especially as regards the societal role of science and technology. Highly qualified scientists,engineers and professionals like C.V. Seshadiri,S.S. Kalbag,M.P. Parameswaran,Ashok Khosla,Bunker Roy,Dunu Roy,Anil Sadgopal and others left solid careers in academia,industry or public administration and set up new grassroots institutions and worked in the areas of appropriate technology,education and skill-building,or science communication,challenging the dominant narrative and institutional frameworks of science,technology and education in the country. These pioneers had widely differing viewpoints and visions of what could be achieved. Some among them,with a decidedly left orientation,located themselves within a wider perspective,both in terms of their ideas and as part of a larger movement. And others were to link their specific concerns,experiments and institution-building with a wider transformative politics.

Vinod Raina,who passed away on September 12,was one of this illustrious pantheon,perhaps among the last in this first wave. Having come out of Delhi University’s Physics department with a doctorate to initially join Sadgopal’s Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme,Vinod founded Eklavya to work on path-breaking and innovative science-teaching curriculum,materials and pedagogy. From the experimental fringe,Eklavya’s science textbooks and teaching methods came close to becoming part of the formal system,at least in Madhya Pradesh,before the inevitable resistance and establishment blowback. But not before it had come to be lauded and accepted by all serious educationists as a major breakthrough,with many of its methods and teaching aids finding their way into mainstream teaching.

Vinod,however,was not content to remain in a science-teaching pigeonhole. He readily saw that the problems bedevilling science education in India were part of a much larger malaise and could not be addressed solely within the confines of pedagogy. The problems afflicting science-teaching were but a part of structural maladies of the education system,a generally low penetration of scientific attitude in society,including among teachers and the educated classes,and all these were connected to wider socio-political issues.

Vinod’s vision brought him closer to several other organisations working in science popularisation and promotion of a scientific temper,in wider education policy issues,in community health,science and technology policy,which together were coalescing into the Peoples Science Movement. Vinod played a key role in this much broader movement,which straddled policy studies and advocacy,demystification of science and technology,building and promoting alternative models in education,health,livelihood creation and social organisation. The PSM came to engage policymakers,scientific institutions and the general public in a grand move towards the democratisation of science and technology at all levels,and in particular so that people at large could become informed participants in decision-making on issues that crucially impacted on their lives. Vinod made significant contributions to shaping this movement and to the formation of the All India Peoples Science Network. In recent times,Vinod joined his other PSM colleagues in taking this experience international and in catalysing the nascent World Forum for Science and Democracy.

When the PSM took upon itself the task of putting literacy on the agenda of the nation and plunged into the resultant Total Literacy Campaign,Vinod was again at the forefront and remained,till his death,a key actor in the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti that the PSM had formed as its vehicle for literacy and related activities.

To my mind,more than all these specific contributions,important as they were,Vinod’s role as a pioneer in the social movement firmament stands out. Many individuals and organisations continue to make significant contributions to a better understanding of complex socio-political issues involved in science and technology. But few have dedicated their entire lives not only to advancing a better understanding of the issues and critiquing extant policies towards generating better ones,but also to creating alternatives,demonstrating new models on the ground,and using these exemplars as levers to push for concrete rather than abstract alternatives.

As Vinod well knew,this is a tough road,and those of us who have traversed it know its pitfalls. Sceptics will raise doubts about impracticality,radicals will question one’s credentials and commitment to social transformation. Vinod stuck it out and blazed a trail for others to follow. There is no shortage of critics in India who will point to this or that problem in Indian society,and there are many who escape into sloganeering,conventionalism or even simply leave the country for greener pastures. But there are a few,a very few,who work to make the change and,indeed,be the change. I most remember,and pay tribute to,Vinod Raina for being one of these very few.

The writer is president,All India Peoples Science Network,Delhi