The concept of ‘Scientific temper’ was articulated first by Jawaharlal Nehru among Indian politicians in 1946 in his book, ”The Discovery of India”, referring to it as ‘a way of life, a process of thinking, a method of acting and associating with our fellowmen’. Of course, the tradition of skepticism and humanism is not new to Indian intellectual tradition. Such ideas date back to antiquity – the Jain, Samkya, and Buddhist traditions have repeatedly emphasized the spirit of enquiry. During the Indian renaissance, many leaders popularized the idea of scientific enquiry, and gradually, it became part of Indian ethos.
Nehru was instrumental in laying the foundations for building the infrastructure for science and technology – the Universities, the IITs, the CSIR labs, etc. These became the ‘hardware’ of scienceand technology, while ‘Scientific temper’ among the people of India....
