/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-INDIA: Astrology Takes Star-crossed Path to Academia

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Aug 14 2001 (IPS) - It is no exaggeration to say that India is a land run by astrologers. Politicians and businessmen make their moves after consulting them and few dare take the uncertain path of matrimony without their approval.

But when India’s minister for human resources development, Murli Manohar Joshi, deemed Vedic astrology a science and ordered the introduction of degree courses on the subject in the country’s universities, he fell afoul of orthodox academia.

“We, the members of the Indian scientific community, feel that the proposal by the University Grants Commission (UGC which funds universities and pays salaries) to introduce Vedic astrology (‘Jyotir Vigyan’) and ‘Vastushastra’ (science of residential properties) is a giant leap backwards, undermining whatever scientific credibility our country may have so far achieved,” the dons said in a petition to Joshi.

But Joshi (the name indicates his family practised astrology), who once taught university-level physics, is on a personal mission to overhaul education in India in favour of the pro-Hindu, “saffron” ideology of his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Joshi, who is also in charge of the ministry of science and technology, was among those who pushed India into weaponising its nuclear capability in May 1998, barely three months after the BJP first came to power.

Since then, Joshi has set about zealously purging key positions in hallowed academic institutions of “Marxists” and replacing them with handpicked supporters of the “saffron” or ‘Hindutva’ (pro- Hindu) ideology.

The colour saffron is closely identified with Hinduism and is invariably worn by holy men and women to indicated worldly renouncement.

Institutions such as the prestigious Gandhian Institute of Studies in the eastern city of Varanasi, which did not toe the ‘Hindutva’ line and accept a new director chosen by Joshi, were simply starved of funds and the salaries of its employees cut off.

So when the UGC wrote to Indian universities announcing approval for the introduction of regular courses in Vedic astrology starting the next academic year, it was seen as yet another move to “saffronise” the education system.

It was also seen by many as part of Joshi’s pet project to set the clock back to the glorious days when Vedic culture flourished and the sub-continent was yet to be overrun by Muslim invaders.

Astrology is considered to be the very eye of the Vedas or ancient scriptures which form the heart of the Hindu religion, its rites, rituals and practices.

Yash Pal, a distinguished science educator and former chairman of the UGC, commented wryly that the present dispensation would have it that “the study of time is best done through Vedic astrology rather than with atomic clocks and carbon, uranium or potassium dating was never invented”.

“Copernicus, Newton and Einstein never happened. In any case, not being Vedic they are not perhaps as holy or as valid as Vedic astrology. If you want to know the age of the earth or the universe all you need to do is to consult texts in Vedic astrology,” Pal said of the current UGC’s views.

The historian Romila Thapar described as “shallow” the stated objective of the UGC “to rejuvenate the science of Vedic astrology in India, to allow the scientific knowledge to reach society at large and to provide opportunities to get this important science even exported to the world”.

P K Srivastava, director of the Centre for Science Education and Communication (CSEC) at Delhi University, saw the move as a sinister one in which there was an “attempt to close the process of inquiry”.

There are those who point out that there is little that is Vedic about Indian astrology because it appears to have borrowed heavily from Babylonian and Greek traditions, especially in the meaning of the signs of the zodiac and the patterns formed by the constellations.

The loudest voice against Joshi’s attempt to bulldoze his way through Indian academia and the Marxists that he claims to be fighting comes from Jayant Narlikar, an internationally respected astrophysicist.

“Numerous studies have shown that astrology is not a science. Neither its basic assumptions nor its predictions conform to the rigorous discipline that science demands,” said Narlikar in an open letter to Joshi.

But Joshi has shown no sign of relenting. In June, he found an unexpected ally in the Andhra Pradesh High Court which dismissed a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the UGC plan to institute and fund courses in Vedic astrology.

The court said it did not wish to interfere with the decision- making process of the UGC and refused to entertain the idea that introducing Vedic astrology in universities went against the fundamental duty of an Indian citizen to “develop a scientific temper”.

The court’s decision has been questioned by no less than one of its former chief justices, Alladi Kuppuswami, who pointed out that the Constitution expressly forbade provision of religious instruction in any institution wholly maintained out of state funds.