Out Loud! With Gurpreet Singh
Thu, October 30 2008
While Indians have stepped into space in the past, this is the first time that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has sent a craft to orbit the moon.
Former Indian Air Force Officer Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian astronaut to go into space in 1984 as part of the joint Indo-Russian space mission, while the late Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian woman to go into space in 1997 as an astronaut of the American space agency, NASA. She died in the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003.
ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair announced during his Vancouver visit in 2004 that India would be sending its first mission to the moon. He was visiting Vancouver as part of the International Aeronautical Congress, where the model of Chandrayaan was also displayed.
While the moon mission speaks to the success of Indian space technology it also forces us to consider whether Indian society is adopting a scientific outlook.
Superstitions like astrology and palmistry are widely practised in India. Shamefully, elected politicians and public service administrators also indulge in such practices. Even the Indian President Pratibha Patil has admitted her belief in ghosts and spirits. All this despite the fact that the first Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, emphasized science over superstition.
The scientists returned home without being honoured at any civic reception. This is not the case when an Indian politician or a religious guru visits Metro Vancouver. Similarly, only a very small group of Indo-Canadians showed up for the first candlelight vigil was organized in Surrey in the memory of astronaut Kalpana Chawla.
The Indian Rationalist Society leader Avtar Gill staged a play in Surrey recently based on a story of how early Sikhs were influenced by a rumour that they could see the face of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, in the moon. Nanak too challenged this blind faith in superstition, yet many of his followers today continue to value superstition over science.
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