The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Religion invoked to contest hegemony of science’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 20, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Religion invoked to contest hegemony of science’

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: “Invocation of myths and religion is a sign of protest against the hegemony of science.” This statement by Sundar Sarakki, a scientist, summed up the intellectual response to the controversy kicked up by the Sethu Samudram project.

A panel discussion on “Faith and reason” organised here on Tuesday by the Centre for Film and Drama (CFD) was trying hard to analyse the place of religion in a project categorised as “development.”

The debate on the pros and cons of the project had been hijacked by the political parties. But since the people knew no other way to contest it, they had turned to religion, he said.

As Ashok Rao, another member of the scientific community, put it, the arrogance of science was paralleled only by the arrogance of the establishment.

Public welfare

The former Chief Secretary Chiranjeev Singh seconded the observation, adding that “most projects are aimed at money-making and not public welfare.”

Sanskrit scholar Shathavadani Ganesh found no room for confrontation between reason and faith. Even within faith, there was a rational way, he said.

Historian N.S. Rajaram saw in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Karunanidhi’s statement on Ram the reiteration of the Aryan-Dravidian divide. “Scholars should have the courage to contest him. Somebody has to speak up for reason. Our historians, by and large, are silent. There is a need to solidify the foundation of reason,” he said.

Another speaker, S.R. Rao, was convinced that the Sethu Samudram project would be a disaster, both economically and ecologically.

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