________________
SCIENCE AND THE UNIVERSITIES
(v) to encourage individual initiative for the acquisition and dissemina-, tion of knowledge, and for discovery of new knowledge, in an .tmosphere of academic freedom,
(vi) and, in general, to secure for the people of the country all the benefits that can accrue from the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge
The Government of India have decided to pursue and accomplish these aims by offering good conditions of service to scientists and according them an honoured position, by associating scientists with the formulation of policies and by taking such other measures as may be deemed necessary from time to time
This is a most heartening and welcome policy statement giving explicit ognition to the role and importance of science and technology in the affairs and progress of the country To give concrete shape to this policy is no easy thing, no royal road It requires relentless effort and vigorous action by the Government, the scientific community and the public generally There is no doubt that a great beginping has been made. We have taken the first steps, and in this venture the first steps are paricularly difficult As science grows in the country, its influence and effectiveness increases extremely rapidly The interaction between science and society is a dynamic and an evolving thing The Scientific Revolation
It needs no reminding these days that, in a historical sense, the most conspicuous feature of the modern world 18 science We do not quite understand why the Scientific-the term is used here in its broad sense-was not realised by the great Civilisations of antiquity why and how it originated in Western Europe only a few centuries ago and then spread all over the world? May be, to start with it was in the nature of a 'spontaneous fluctuation which because of a peculiar combination of socio-economic factors, aided by colonial expansion, revival of ancient learning and an atmosphere of religious ferment gathered momentum rapidly instead of evaporating away as probably happened with somewhat similar events in earlier times We do not understand why the growth of science during the preceding two years or so has occurred at an almost terrific pacethe doubling period of science is around 15 years Much study and research in the history of science and social sciences would be necessary before we could hope to understand these things
Let us for a moment see the Scientific Revolution against the backdrop of history—the evolution of the universe It is meaningful to assign to the universe an age of 20-30 billion years (1 billion- 1,000 millon), The sun 18 10 billion years old, and it has about the same length of time ahead of st As against this, the highly luminous B-type star has a lifetime of a few million years only Incidentally, the
61