On Sunday 20th November CSIR tweeted about a new project by one of their constituent institutes (Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee). The link to the tweet can be found here: https://twitter.com/CSIR_IND/status/1594334001392930816?s=20&t=um7RRNnrKTZWIBfD5nTckQ
More detailed reports about the project were published by several news outlets as seen here:
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/ayodhya-sun-to-shine-on-ram-with-science/cid/1899477
https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/sun-rays-on-idol-csir-in-row-over-ram-temple-project-1164561.html
The reports also mention that researchers at CBRI claimed that IIA and IUCAA are involved in this project.
Based on reported description of the project, we have following observations:
1. Installing a door or window at a strategic location such that sun rays reach the inner sanctum on a chosen date is not a novel feature in Indian places of worship. One finds many temples as well as Buddhist caves with such windows and doors. For such an opening, the sun rays will reach a designated spot every year on a fixed date as per solar calendar. However, Ram Navami date is determined by a luni-solar calendar and hence it doesn’t coincide with a fixed date in the solar calendar. Thus, a static opening will not achieve the desired result.
2. The CBRI researchers seem to have correctly realized this practical difficulty. Their solution is to design a contraption which will keep adjusting itself in an automated way to match with the 19 year Metonic Cycle. This approach, although technologically feasible, is against the spirit of scientific process for two reasons:
A. Firstly, this approach overcomplicates the solution. There are other much simpler ways to achieve the falling of sun rays on the idol exactly on the Ram Navami like some temple staff manually turning the mirror. Instead, the CBRI has chosen to design a set of mirrors mounted on a gear assembly controlled electronically to achieve exactly the same effect.
This is akin to badly designed school level science fair projects that many of us see each year, where purpose is not solving a problem in an elegant way but it is to devise as complicated and as resource heavy solution as possible in a hope to impress the audience / judges merely by the complexity of the solution. Or as is said in a popular idiom “bringing out a cannon to kill an ant”.B. Secondly, the chosen approach doesn’t advance our scientific or technological understanding in any way. Engineering such a device may be a good learning exercise for an undergraduate student, but researchers are expected to focus on quests which advance human knowledge. Researchers in a CSIR laboratory wasting time on such trivial pursuit, which does not lead to any scientific / technological discovery or a new insight, is a criminal waste of skilled human resources and public money. Even more so in a context wherein younger science researchers are facing horrendous and demoralizing delays in disbursement of their allocated research grants and fellowships.
3. Scientific institutions of excellence like IUCAA and IIA perforce work in a framework of scientific temper, and spread scientific thinking which is their core value, thus upholding the constitution. It is shocking to see their names associated with such a foolhardy pursuit. It would be in the best interests for these institutes to clarify the air about their alleged role in this project. Their peers deserve to know where these institutes stand on the issue of scientific temper.
Signed by
Prof. Aniket Sule, Mumbai
Prof. Prajval Shastri, Bengaluru
Prof. Soumitro Banerjee, Kolkata
Prof. Naresh Dadhich, Pune
Prof. Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Bengaluru
Prof. Nissim Kanekar, Pune
Prof. Ravinder Kumar Banyal, Bengaluru
Prof. S. P. Rajaguru, Bengaluru
Prof. Manoj Puravankara, Mumbai
Dr. Shriharsh Tendulkar, Mumbai
Dr. Ruta Kale, Pune
Prof. Anandmayee Tej, Thiruvananthapuram
Dr. Shadab Alam, Mumbai
Prof. Preeti Kharb, Pune
Prof. Pravabati C., Bengaluru
Prof. Mousumi Das, Bengaluru
Prof. Sivarani, Bengaluru
Prof. P. Ajith, Bengaluru
Prof. Arnab Bhattacharya, Mumbai
Prof. B. Sury, Bengaluru
Prof. Gautam Menon, Sonipat
Prof. Sharadchandra Lele, Bengaluru
Prof. Nandita Narain, Delhi
Prof. Rahul Nigam, Hyderabad
Prof. Ayan Banerjee, Kolkata
Prof. Aurnab Ghose, Pune
Prof. Bittu K R, Sonipat
Prof. S. Krishnaswamy, Madurai
Prof. Suresh Govindarajan, Chennai
Prof. Jyotsna Vijapurkar, Navi Mumbai
Prof. Mujtaba Lokhandwala, Pune
Prof. Medha Rajadhyaksha, Mumbai
Dr. Deepshikha Nagar, Thiruvananthapuram
Prof. Pradeep Kumar Datta, Kolkata
Prof. Anindita Bhadra, Kolkata
Mr. Kollegela Sharma, Mysuru
Prof. Aahana Ganguly, Bengaluru
Prof. Shanta Laishram, Delhi
and 300 others
