The Solar Eclipse: science & superstition

Fostering scientific temper is one duty every Indian is constitutionally mandated to perform; Legislated duty or not, I have been a firm promoter of inquiry and investigation as fool proof and dependable methods to solve problems or search for answers. Organized observation or research does not provide all answers, but they are the only means to at least try to find them. Towards this end, I have conducted hundreds of scientific programs all over the district and beyond, inculcating a spirit of ‘how and why’ in young minds of schools and colleges. It is for me a mission, a passionate one at that.

Last week, visible over parts of India was a partial solar eclipse – a natural celestial phenomenon, recurring periodically with mathematical preciseness –  its appearance can be calculated to a minute using physics and numbers – orbital pathways and a working understanding of the solar system. I recollecet some decades ago, as a postgraduate student in 1980, I exposed chick embryos to the umbra of a total solar eclipse pathway that ran over North Canara near Karwar as part of a research project on developmental embryology.  Not a single among the forty embryos was affected in any way by the eclipse. The results though, didnt make it to any journal of science – but were featured in a popular state daily, The Deccan Herald.

Come eclipse time (be it the less spectacular lunar or the more the dazzling comet or meteor streak), I make it a point to educate a few, assisting the curios and others with a scientific bent of mind to personally view the cosmic dramas.

To excite minds, I cite tales, culled from history or mythology, on how and why eclipses have helped man – from Columbus, who won over hostile native Indians in the newly discovered Americas, to Krishna Bhagwan who used the transient shadowing of Kurukshetra to military advantage over Kouravas – both knew much on the dates and times of solar eclipses and manipulated the prowess of their astronomical knowledge to triumph over setbacks. From Indus Valley to Incas, comets, occultations and odd linear planetary positions – have been used by the knowledgeable to browbeat the ignorant into submission. Kings and Emperors have watched the skies for the ill omens – or good tidings.

Of course, I accept we are a nation of Hindus predominantly – and much ‘evil’ is associated and sanctioned in mythological and religious, to the ominous portends that ‘grahans’ bring in their wake. Faith is a strong force – and science cannot counter beliefs carried over millennia. Rationalism has its imitations, beyond which it can hurt sentiments and upset many. The hangover of the infamous times of Copernicus is still around and with us – he dared to question the church version that the earth was the center of the solar system. He proclaimed it was the sun. Vatican was not amused.

It pained me though, when I recently heard that a professional institution declared a half holiday for its staff and students to ward off the evil influence of last week’s solar eclipse. India has a long way to go. Landing  a spacecraft on the moon is the next major project of the ISRO – yet I am certain, like every other launch it has held over years, this spaceship too will take-off from its pad, at an almanac (panchanga) blessed and auspicious time interval.

http://ixedoc.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/08/the-solar-eclipse-science-superstition.htm