Monteiro blasts communalism, calls for independence in scientists
PANJIM, Feb 7: Trade unionist, maths educator and
mathematical physicist Dr Vivek Monteiro lambasted
communalism, called for scientists to think independently,
and stressed the need to meet the basic living needs of the
poor here this evening.
Dr Monteiro, a son of Goa but settled in Mumbai, was
delivering the fourth day's talks in the D.D. Kosambi
festival of ideas series at the Kala Academy.
US-educated Monteiro, secretary of the CPI(M)-affiliated CITU
Maharashtra State Committee, said: "Kosambi has been a very
prominent influence on every young student in India who
proceeds towards the Left."
He acknowledged the influence of the Miramar-based Dhempe
College in shaping him in the sixties -- including professors
Joe Menezes, Nadkarni, Kantak, Parbhudesai, and others at St
Xavier's Mumbai.
He also had a good word for his colleagues Frank Braganza and
Nitan Kenkre, and his parents maths teacher Sophia and
engineer-armyman (Brig) Innocencio Monteiro.
He said India's biggest problem was "836 million people being
denied their basic needs" and said science could not ignore
this. Some 92% of the workforce belonged to the unorganised
sector in INdia, he noted.
"Science is the long history of learning how not to fool
yourself," said Monteiro. "It is not always convenient to be
scientific," said Monteiro, stressing how some scientists
shirked their social responsibilities and acted as if
politics was completely another world.
"DD Kosambi was a scientist who never compromised with his
scientific values. He worked in the TIFR and was critical of
nuclear energy, so he was out on early retirement. During his
life, he never attained the status of a scientific star,"
said Monteiro.
He pointed to Kosambi's view that modern science was the
"creation of the bourgeosie" and was "no longer independent".
Monteiro spoke about the scam of the Enron plant at Dhabol
"not far from Goa", and said India's intelligentsia,
including the IITs, had failed to challenge this.
Monteiro lambasted the "communal propaganda" built up prior
to elections, and said science is an "ideology that is
fundamentally opposed to communal ideology and obsfucation".
"Religious terrorism" should be used as a category whenever
people were killed because of their religious identities, he
said, and not just depending on the religion of the killers.
He stressed the need to take quality math education to the
common schools of India, and cited to experiences in Sanguem
which showed this was possible. Monteiro's NavNirmit trust is
devoted to universalizing elementary science and mathematics
education.
He pointed to the work of the All India People's Science
Congress, and how 10,000 "decent homes" had been built at
Solapur the cost of just two plush apartments in the
costliest part of Mumbai.
Later, in a Q&A session, he fielded questions on whether
Marxism had created freedom of thought ("it's an issue
socialism has still to resolve"), "scientific terrorism", the
misuse of science, his views on Gandhi, and from some who
appeared keen to contrast whether communal riots caused more
deaths than human exploitation.
Speaking earlier, environmentalist Dr Claude Alvares, whose
Dutch doctorate is in the history of science, said Monteiro
had "disappeared from my life for at least 30 years".
Like him, Alvares noted, Monteiro was also "a creature of the
1960s" when college youth battled the reality of poverty in
India and took part in rural development camps.
Alvares praised Monteiro for sticking to his vision and
opting for trade unionism which was "not a sexy job". People
with US doctorates went in for the "universities,
corporations and the heart bypasse at the apt age."
