Science & Technology Since Independence

The Nehruvian vision of science was intended to replace the imperial ideology of the old colonial services with an ideology of science as the means by which the modern nation could free itself from the incubus of custom and overcome deprivation and backwardness. His speech as he told the Indian Science Congress in 1937, “It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, or a rich country inhabited by starving people…… The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science.” make it clear that he was intent on formulating his own views on the role of science in society.

Important Commitments To Science Under Nehru’s Leadership

1. The birth of the Indian space programme had much to do with Nehru’s belief in science. Nehru, in consultation with Bhabha, established the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) of the country.
2. As part of the effort to promote self-sustaining scientific and technological growth, the foundation stone of India’s first national laboratory, the National Physical Laboratory, was laid on 4 January 1947, later followed by the setting up of a network of 17 national laboratories, specialising in different areas of research.
3. To emphasize the importance of science and scientific research, Nehru himself assumed the chairmanship of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, which guided and financed national laboratories and other scientific institutions.
4. In 1952, the first of the five institutes of technology, patterned after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was set up at Kharagpur – the other four were set up subsequently at Madras, Bombay, Kanpur, and Delhi.
5. A Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was set up for research in the manufacture of missiles, armaments, explosives, and other defence-related inventory. India was one of the first nations to recognise the importance of nuclear energy.
6. The constitution of an Atomic Energy Commission in 1948 and the establishment of the Department of Atomic Energy again under the charge of the Prime Minister are proof of the foresightedness of this great lover of science.
7. India also took up space research. It set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962 and established a Rocket Launching Facility at Thumba (TERLS). It was a year later, in 1963, that the first rocket was launched.
8. He also laid the foundations of a dual-track nuclear programme due to which India achieved nuclear-capable status.
9. Nehru inaugurated the fertiliser plant in Sindri and the Hindustan Antibiotics Limited in Pimpri.

To Nehru, science was the natural agent of socialism and the industrialisation of India, through science and technology, was the only solution to the primary problem of poverty. As a result of Nehru’s efforts, India has today a sound infrastructure of science but obscurantism still flourishes. His commitment to science changed the face of India and it is concluded that it will be worthwhile to continue along the lines Nehru laid down.