From Revolution to Science Policy

On the 9th August 1942, 80,000 Indians were arrested including Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Maulana Azad. In an early dawn raid the entire Working Committee Members of All Indian Congress Party were arrested in Bombay. Gandhi was interned at the Agha Khan Palace but before he could be taken away, the Mahatma gave his messianic call to the people: “Do or Die. But consider yourself a Free nation.” Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had escaped from the British prison, and Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence satyagraha policy had become paramount in Indian freedom movement.

On summer night a writer – Chandrashekar Shastri – arrived with a huge bundle of books to hide them in our house. He had published: History of Indian Revolutionaries (in Hindi- bharatiya atnkvad-ka itihas). The book was banned by the British government but it was Gita for our patriotic youth. I read the book from beginning to the end mostly during the night in hiding from the informers who roamed our streets posing as patriotic Indians wearing the handspun khadi clothes.

India exploded and the British had unleashed war on an unarmed nation of 30 million people. The British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill had rebuked the Mahatma by calling him “the naked faqir” whom he could not stand, nor could he recognize the popular force of Gandhi’s non-violent satyagraha that had no match in the arsenal of Churchill’s war system.

No nation came to help the Indian people. We were alone in the struggle against the Empire on which the Sun never set. If the western powers led by the U.S. were fighting Germany and Japan, Gandhi had given the call for the final battle against the foreign rule and injustice. But we had no weapons and our leaders were in Jail. Unarmed Indian youth adopted an unusual tactics of disrupting the official machinery and thus weakening the British war efforts. We burned every possible government property, burning trains and destroying the railways. It was an heroic act if we could damage a public property, or burn a post office.

As the British government was engaged in supplying and transporting the soldiers to the front lines against the Japanese forces in the Eastern theatre, we attacked the rear of the English with non-cooperation and disturbances in the entire length and breath of the country. Railways, post-offices, government buildings – anything that carried the official seal of the Empire became the hate symbol for Indian people. Today, what we see in our country the politics of violence and disruptive political tactics and daily attacks and strikes and lawlessness – all these undesirable acts of hooliganism – paradoxically are the historical legacy of the worthy act of non-cooperation with the administration we learnt under the Gandhi’s 1942 Freedom campaign against the Raj.

In 1980s, Mrs. Indira Gandhi had announced to build a Nuclear Power Station, on Ganga at Narora village, in the UP. The Enviornmental scientists had not approve the site for such a construction because the site is located close to an earthquake fault. But for political reason, Mrs. Gandhi wanted to have such an expensive but attractive project to be in the area where she was pitted against a powerful local Jat opponent in the Jat constituency of the western UP. My study indicated that being in the high seismic zone and on the major source of Ganga that was most in-appropriate site for an atomic power station. I organized a campaign against Nuclear Power.

For a signature campaign I approached many political leaders. All of them agreed with my reasoning but for political reasons refused to take up the issue. I too wanted it a-political science policy issue. So, I approached Indian scientists. Most of them agreed that it was a wrong decision but refused to sign my petition. I specially approached the scientists in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. I was told that their jobs and research grants were at stake. I liked Jayant Narlikar’s high quality research and pioneering contribution to Astronomy. But Padma-Bhushan Dr. Narlikar replied: “ We have one life and we should decide what we want to achieve. I am seeking a ten crore grant for establishing an Astronomy Centre from the Prime Minister. I cannot criticize the official policy.”

With some social activists and my JNU students, I organized a protest march at the Narora Atomic Power Project site. On an appointed day, with a few hundred students – mostly from JNU, and Lady Sriram Girls College, I arrived at the Narora site. Well disciplined, and well behaved urbanized students had lined up in front of the Nuclear Power project. We were totally peaceful and I was addressing the scientists, engineers and the security personnel insight the parameter of the project. I was presenting scientific data and explaning technical problems in construction of nuclear reactors. That how threatening the radiation is to life and environment. As there villages surrounding the site, I had prepared a write-up in simple Hindi for distribution. We also prepared a documentary on dangers of atomic power based on European and the American accidents.

A lady journalist came up to me to inform that she heard a police officer prompting local boys to attack the girls “ Dilli-walis.” I quickly regrouped our boys, and placed them in a protective formation , around our girls, and alerted the scouting commandoes. I also went on the mike and narrated the incident and warned the plain clothe intelligent officers against adopting such disruptive tactics.

But more disappointing experience was yet to come. A former Member of Parliament and local political leader, dressed in Khadi arrived on the scene and showed great support for our campaign. Welcoming the politician I asked him to mobilize local support as the project poses greater threat to their security. After sometime, the politician came to me:

“Professor saab, your this anti-nuclear campaign can be a really great political success provided you take me as your leader.”
“Oh, Netaji, ( leader), you are welcome, please, lead the campaign,” I responded affirmatively.

“O.K., then.” And the Netaji whispered to me:
“ Tell your boys and girls to attack the security guards. We shall make a co-ordinated charge. Three boys to snach the gun of one soldier, and the two girls shall gharao ( surround) the other two guards and the rest of us shall push inside the gate raising slogans Zindabad, and ‘atomic power’, down, down..”

“But I do not want any trouble. If we cross the line and force any entry into the atomic site, the soldiers are most likely to hit back and our students will get hurt. Our campaign is Gandhian. We shall remain totally peaceful – I propose no confrontation.”

I ordered the students to maintain discipline and show no disrespect towards the security guards as they were doing our national service. “They were our friends, and protectors, not our enemies,” I asserted.

But the political intruder was disappointed: “ If you cannot provoke a firing and take a few casualties, you cannot build a campaign. If one person gets killed, you will be headlined in the newspapers and your anti-nuclear campaign will get greater support.”

I refused to associate him with the campaign. The leader walked away in disgust: “you have no campaign…your anti-nuclear campaign is dead from the start.”
And he was right. No political party, no political leader came forward to take up the anti-nuclear campaign in India.

My campaign was dead. But you may charge me with failure, or want of sense. “But the slightest approach to a false pretence was never among my crimes.” ( Lewis Carroll.)