GOING BEYOND BIG SCIENCE, EMBRACING CREATIVE SOCIETY

Democracy needs to be woven with scientific innovation. The process needs to be ritualised in playful ways so that the institutions don't become clerical or authoritarian

- SHIV VISVANATHAN

BIG Science determines the rules in the field of science. The Chandrayaan mission is an example of Big Science. Between Big Science and Big Media, we invite the spectacle and exhibit. Chandrayaan as a ritual repeats the rhetoric of science, making scientific temper the official ideology of the nation state.

The pluralism of science gets lost in the monolithic methods of construction. The challenge is this: how can we pluralise science? In line with this, I would like to narrate a few anecdotes.

These anecdotes are about modest projects without the research grants that science seems to command. Their modesty lies not in the narrative but also in the money they seem to involve.

Two years ago, there was a meeting in Chirala, a town in Andhra Pradesh, between a group of local weavers and European historians of science. While the weavers sat on the ground, the historians sat on chairs, physically and mentally distant.

Suddenly, a Dutch historian suggested that they all sit on the floor. The mood changed, and two sets of experts from two different milieus met as equals. It was a cross-cultural seminar where the groups tried to translate their philosophies with each other.

What followed was even more exciting. One of the weavers told the historian, "You have not only stolen our technology but our epistemology." Few suspected that the weaver could articulate a formal theory of knowledge. Weavers are upset because the government has dubbed their industry as a fading one. Over 13 million weavers are deprived of the right to articulate their theories and world views that stem from their experience in the craft. So, they are looking for an epistemologist to work with them outside the ambit of the government.