Despite the penetration of science and technology into all spheres of life, contemporary India, compared to the 1950s, is religious in its world view, Y. Sreenivasa Rao, Professor of History, Bharatidasan University, has said.
Human gods pop up every day and their religious empires expand overseas, he said after inaugurating a seminar on ‘Jawaharlal Nehru and the promotion of scientific temper in India.’ It was organised by the Secular Collective at Indoor Stadium here on Monday.
Even after three centuries of modernisation, Indian minds were at the disposal of the masters of mystery, he said. Stones by the wayside were venerated as representation of god. It was in this backdrop that Nehru envisaged a society, the basis of which was science and rationalism, Prof. Rao said.
Nehru, however, could not take it forward as a national project, Prof. Rao added.
