In this episode, we are going back to a term India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru coined - “scientific temper.” He may have fallen out of favour in the current times, but this is an important contribution and we had to go back to it given that it was later introduced as a fundamental duty of every Indian citizen, in our constitution. He first talked about it in his book Discovery of India. He was referring to the attitude of logical and rational thinking and it is not restricted to those practising science only. I chatted with Vinay Kumar, and together we try to make sense of this fundamental duty and how we can execute it. Curious cat is doing a two part series on lesser known aspects of constitution in view of the Republic day celebrations coming up. This is the first part. Come along. 

PS: Apologies for the poor quality audio in this episode. And look out for my impatient furry fellow Noah join in the conversation.) 

Full introduction of my guest on this episode: 

Vinay’s interests range from Mars to Mohenjodaro. An aerospace engineer by training and  an Intellectual Property consultant by profession, he has worked extensively at the intersection of technology, arts & society. His interest in heritage conservation led him to co-found #InscriptionStonesOfBangalore, a crowd sourced & crowd funded effort to save ancient inscriptions. He is currently documenting the journey of his music teacher, Dr. Gayathri Rajapur, who was one of India's foremost Gottuvadyam players & ethnomusicologists.

Show notes: 

Constitution of India, Citizen’s fundamental duties: https://www.constitutionofindia.net/constitution_of_india/fundamental_duties/articles/Article%2051A

Bangalore Science Forum: http://bangalorescienceforum.in

National Scientific temper day:

https://www.kamp.res.in/Info/Common?Page=ScientificTemper

https://www.firstpost.com/tech/science/national-scientific-temper-day-remembering-our-duty-to-develop-a-spirit-of-inquiry-4998071.html

On Narendra Dabholkar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Dabholkar

On M M Kalburgi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._M._Kalburgi
Usefulness of useless knowledge: https://www.ias.edu/about/usefulness-useless-knowledge

Gandhi on science: https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/views_on_sci.htm