the two complementary activities, industry and agriculture. Both depend on applications of science, which is capable of very great advance. I have often tried to draw public attention to the problems of the immediate future and shall do so once more. I have shown that there is a great capacity in Indians for discovery and invention. How is this to be utilised for saving India in her present economic crisis? Let us frankly face the danger; the present unrest in India, as in Europe, is in reality ultimately due to severe economic distress. It is hunger that drives people to desperation and to the destruction of all that has been slowly built up for ordered progress. In other parts of the world, it is not doctrinaires but the best intellect of the country—leaders of science, as well as leading men of business—who are called upon to devise means for increasing the wealth of the country. In my travels, I found little or no distress in Norway and in Denmark. Norway, for example, has an area of a few thousand square miles; it is not naturally rich. She nevertheless maintains her own army and navy, has her system of universal education, and the most up-to-date University. Poverty is practically unknown. The miracle is accomplished through science by utilising to the utmost all the available resources of the country.
The Country’s Peril.
Need I say that unemployment and economic distress in India, on account of its magnitude, present a problem even more acute and dangerous than anywhere else? Is it not tragic that our country with great potential wealth should be in this terrible plight? There is a large number of young men who could be specially trained in the most advanced methods of science in efficiently conducted Institutes, the high standard of which should stand comparison with any in the world. This would remove many difficulties experienced by Indian students in Europe. It should also be our aim not to be so entirely dependent on foreign countries for our higher education and for our needs. For carrying out such a programme, a far-sighted and comprehensive State policy would be required. I am sure that the country would willingly meet the necessary large expenditure, provided that the money is spent here for benefiting and enriching India, and in opening out wider spheres of activity for her children. There is also a large field for enterprise, where Indians and Englishmen would, as partners, find opportunities for co-operation and higher appreciation of each other. While all activity is paralysed by dissensions, foreign nations, not over-friendly to Indian interests, are pursuing their policy of exploitation and consolidation of their claims on India’s resources. The peaceful penetration will inevitably lead to forceful occupation and division of India into different spheres of influence. There lies India’s great peril.
Knowledge in Service of Humanity.
The extension and utilisation of knowledge in the service of man is the true function of a centre of learning. We need not be discouraged by temporary aberrations of man, but we should be inspired by the nobility of his aspirations. It is not by passivity but by active struggle that we can serve the world in better ways. The weakling who has refused to take part in the conflict, having acquired nothing, has nothing to give or renounce. He alone, who has striven and won, can enrich the world by giving away the fruits of his victorious experience. The strong has thus taken the burden of the weak, a common sorrow having filled his life with pity and compassion. And no injunction could be more imperative on us than the ancient royal edict of Asoka inscribed on imperishable stone, twenty-two centuries ago:
“Go forth and intermingle and bring them to knowledge. Go forth among the terrible and powerful. both here and in foreign countries, in kindred ties of brotherhood and sisterhood, go everywhere!”
Address given at the eighth anniversary meeting of the Bose Institute.
