VP News

Marathi Science Writers Meet

In continuation of Vigyan Prasars efforts to assess the state of popular science writing in different regional languages and to identify the problems faced by science communicators, a two-day meet (December 1-2, 2001) was organised in Mumbai. Earlier, similar workshops were held in Allahabad, Agartala, Dibrugarh and Manipal. The workshop at Mumbai was jointly organised by Vigyan Prasar and Marathi Vidnyan Parishad (MVP), Mumbai. Nearly 60 science communicators from different parts of Maharashtra participated in the workshop. A number of eminent science communicators attended the workshop. The workshop was inaugurated by Shri M.V. Kamath, a veteran journalist, and the President of Vigyan Prasar Society. The key-note address was delivered by Dr. Bal Phondke, a prolific science writer and former Editor of Science Today and former Director, National Institute of Science Communication. Dr. V.B. Kamble, Acting Director, Vigyan Prasar made a brief presentation of the activities of Vigyan Prasar. Shri A.P. Deshpande, Honorary Secretary, MVP, talked about various activities of MVP, one of the leading science organisations for popularisation of science in the country. MVP was founded in 1966. Today MVP has 37 branches. VP plans to bring out the proceedings of the meet in near future. The valedictory address was delivered by Shri Prabhakar Deodhar, President, MVP. The inaugural speech of Shri Kamath and a report on the workshop are reproduced below :

Inaugural Speech of Shri M.V. Kamath*

Mr. President and distinguished invitees, You can have no idea how proud and honoured I feel to be invited to chair the inaugural session of this august gathering of science writers. I am here today primarily in the capacity as President of Vigyan Prasar. Vigyan Prasar has been doing wonderful work in a variety of ways, much of it totally unknown to our fellow citizens. Many of you are no doubt aware of the range and magnitude of that work. For that matter I myself have been largely ignorant of the magnificent work being done in the field of science writing in Marathi under the aegis of the Marathi Vidnyan Parishad. I am deeply grateful to your Honorary Secretary, Shri A.P. Deshpande, for briefing me on this score. I am addressing you in English, but I have Shri Deshpande's permission to do so. Unfortunately neither my science, nor my Marathi, is equal to addressing you in Marathi though I have a basic degree in science and I live in Mumbai. Not long after I was appointed President of Vigyan Prasar I learnt to my delight that the energetic staff of Vigyan Prasar had organised a meeting of science writers in Assamese and north east languages in Guwahati and that it had a tremendous response. I then wondered whether it was possible to arrange a similar seminar in the south as well, covering writers in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

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A Section of the audience

(From L to R) S. Mahanti ,A.P.Deshpande ,M.V.Kamath ,Bal Phondke and V.B Kamble

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I happen to be a member of the executive of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) as well as Honorary Director of the Manipal Institute of Communication and I said we could provide all the necessary infrastructure at a very reasonable cost. Vigyan Prasar was quite taken up by the idea; what is more, there was a very positive response from science writers in the four south Indian languages. And, I am pleased to say, the seminar that Vigyan Prasar organised in due course, was a major success.

At that point I suggested that we should organise a similar seminar in Mumbai to cover science writing in Marathi and Vigyan Prasar was again most receptive to the idea. I had then no knowledge whatsoever of either the existence of Marathi Vidnyan Parishad or of the great work it has been pastly doing. It merely shows how distanced many of us are from our own language culture. We live in an English cocoon and our world is circumscribed by English. For that reason I feel ashamed - and I mean it - and apologise to your for my ignorance.

Having said that, I would like to make a couple of points before inviting Dr. Bal Phondke to deliver his keynote address.

First of all I am presuming that not only are Marathi writers on science thinking in Marathi but are also contributing original work in Marathi. This is not to say that I am against translation of English science works into Marathi. But I would be proud to think that we are fully capable of scientific thinking in our own matri basha. If German science writers can think in German, Russians in Russian and Japanese in Japanese, why should we be dependent on English even if we are to concede that most science writing we are exposed to is in English? And, if at all it is possible, I would like these writings in Marathi, then translated into English and offered to English language papers as Marathi thinkers' contribution to the edification of English readers.

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That leads me to think that perhaps Marathi Vidnyan Parishad should also think of having a body of translators to translate articles in Marathi not into English alone, but into several other Indian languages. Why should Marathi genius be confined only to the Marathi-speaking diaspora? Why shouldn't it be available to people speaking different languages including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Telugu, etc. In fact, perhaps, Vigyan Prasar should set up a House of Translators so that the best in any Indian language is made available to readers of all Indian languages. I suppose we will have to work out how cost-effective such an organisation would be. Would there be enough multi-liguists who can do a good job of translating an article in one language into another sufficiently well, to make it acceptable to readers of another language?

As I see it, that is one way of introducing science writing in one language to readers of another language, and thereby making science writing per se available to a larger readership.

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What, in effect, I am pleading for is the setting up of a Translators' Bureau. This leads me to the second point: practically all Indian languages - barring, perhaps, Tamil, are Sanskrit-based. Would it then be possible, to evolve a science language that is common to all Indian languages? I learnt science at the secondary school level in Kannada and was familiar with words like angaramla and amlajanaka meaning oxygen and carbon dioxide. Do we have to write sulphuric acid as H2 SO4 or are there ways of dealing with scientific symbols in another - Indian - way? And would that be necessary? How do the Chinese and Japanese handle this problem? And how far need we go to completely 'Indianise' science writing? Would we be wasting our time trying to find out Sanskrit equivalents of hundreds and thousands of scientific and technical terminology unintelligible to those who do not know Sanskrit? And sometimes unintelligible even to those who know Sanskrit? I remember how many people used to laugh at the term 'Kanta Langoti' to describe a neck tie. We don't need to make ourselves ridiculous.

And yet I remain perplexed. Living as we do in as Anglicised world, I can't imagine cutting ourselves from it completely. Can we - should we - apply ourselves to translate all scientific words into their Sanskrit equivalents? Or would be it wise and sane on our parts to let carboxy methyl cellulose be referred to as carboxy methyl cellulose and nothing else? Where does one draw the line?

Medical texts abound in words that offer a challenge to the translator. What applies to medical terminology applies just as well to terminologies of all scientific subjects. That is why I am looking forward to hearing many experts who are assembled here today and to learn from them, and get to know their views. May I say that in the very act of meeting here today we are creating history? It is my earnest wish that out of this seminar will emerge certain approaches to the writing of science that will be of universal value. And may I say how grateful I am to the Marathi Vidnyan Parishad for offering to organise this seminar. I thank you, Shri Deshpande with all the sincerity at my command.

I am looking forward to the day when a student can get a Ph.D by writing his thesis in Marathi. We should aim at producing science writing in Marathi to Himalayan heights. It is one thing to 'popularise' science and promote a scientific outlook. But it is quite another to make Marathi -- for that matter, any other Indian language - a vehicle for communicating the most abstruse scientific thought and concerns. I am not being jingoistic. I fully realise and appreciate the role of English in science communication. Trying to do away with English is wishful thinking. But surely we as a people can rise to heights undreamt of by our forefathers many of them from Charaka onwards or sidewards of great eminence?

From this seminar, I hope, certain concepts will rise that could serve as a guide for the future.

Thank you again, Mr. President and may I wish this seminar the success it so richly deserves.