Stealing the Credit

Prof. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, known to his friends as Venki, shared Nobel Prize for Chemistry with two others in 2009. In fact, he is the first person of Indian origin to get Nobel Prize in Chemistry. With this, Indians or people of Indian origin appear in all the six Nobel Prize categories. It is laudable since not too many Indians (to be more precise, including people of Indian origin) have won this coveted prize so far. In the field of Mathematics, there is no Nobel Prize although there are mathematicians who won Nobel Prize in some other field like John F. Nash Jr. in Economics. Fields Medal in Mathematics (regarded as Nobel Prize equivalent in Mathematics) is considered by many as far more difficult to get for two simple reasons, namely, it is awarded only once in four years unlike Nobel Prize which is awarded annually and there is an upper age limit of forty years for Fields Medal. So far, no Indian got this.

In the present post, I would like to discuss the topic: Is it right on the part of India to steal the credit for the work done elsewhere by people of Indian origin?

Venki had his early education in Baroda, Pre-university from Annamalai University and B.Sc from Baroda. He had his higher education in US and currently working in Cambridge, UK. He is a US citizen now. Both his parents being scientists and educationalists, their role in molding him and inculcating scientific temperament are understandable. Beyond this, what moral right India has in feeling as though an Indian had won a prize for the work done in India?

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Sir C V Raman and Mother Teresa got recognition for their work done on Indian soil. Mother Teresa (Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu), an Albanian born elsewhere, Indian by citizenship, worked all over the world, having her base in Calcutta. She is an integral part of India.

Hargobind Khorana was born in Raipur village that is now in Pakistan. With his high credentials found it difficult to get even a small job in India. He was literally compelled to seek livelihood elsewhere and eventually got recognition for his work. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, after college, spent his life in UK and US. He was born in Lahore (now in Pakistan) before independence. Amartya Sen, barring a brief stint at Jadavpur University, worked in UK and US in his long illustrious career. Dalailama (Tenzin Gyatso) lives in exile in India, a country that has given him political asylum. For all practical purposes, he is a world citizen. Rudyard Kipling and Ronald Ross are British born in India. V S Naipaul is a British born elsewhere. Dr. Abdus Salam was born in today’s Pakistan during pre-independence era. Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, an Indian, received Nobel Prize for Peace in his capacity as chairperson of IPCC, which was shared with Al Gore. Dr. Pachauri did not get it in his individual capacity. Some of them did not hold Indian citizenship at the time of getting the Nobel Prize; nor were they awarded for their work done in India. We can only pray that an Indian gets Fields Medal this time which gets presented in ICM-2010 being held in Hyderabad during August 2010.

It is clear that only three Indian citizens received Nobel Prize for their work done India since its inception in 1901. Mother Teresa got it in post independent era while other two got long before independence. The whole point is, India does not have the infrastructure or ambience necessary for world-class scientific research to get world wide recognition. In the absence of funding, researchers can hardly hope to have facilities required for their work. In most of the Universities, the ambience required for research is missing. Despite the handicap, some scientists and academicians are showing results here and there but that is hardly adequate to get recognition at any international forum.

India can be truly proud only when India is in a position to retain its talent and attract fresh talent from outside world by establishing world-class facilities. Such organisations should get a free hand to work without political interference in any form. Someone has to dream big like Chanakya (Vishnugupta) did some 2,400 years ago: he dreamt of establishing a University near Patliputra (today's Patna) in direct competition with Takshashila (Taxila) where he taught Economics and Political Philosophy and shift the focal point of education at that time and made it happen.