The Sad Case of Dr. Joseph

From Our Bombay Correspondent ARLY this year Mr. Nehru inaugurated, for Lithe twelfth year in succession, the annual session of the Indian Science Congress. He then referred to the large number of scientists, experts in their fields, who had chosen to live and work abroad rather than return home to India and lend a hand in research and developmental work. A few days later M. T. Joseph, who had received a doctorate in entomology from Fordham University in 1957 and was a research officer with the Government's agricultural institute in New Delhi, committed suicide because he could not maintain his .family above the poverty line on a monthly salary of Rs.245 (about £20).

This event has invested Mr. Nehru's regret over the failure of qualified Indians to 'come back and serve the nation' with a hollow ring. Editors of Indian newspapers have been deluged with letters from technical personnel within the country to say how they have been rotting in low-paid jobs which deprive them of responsi- bility and of the opportunity to do their scientific best for the country. They complain how age and experience are mistaken for ability and how men at the helm, intent on taking no risks and letting the sleeping dogs lie, often do not let them come up and improve the quality of research work or production.

* In a caste-ridden society like India's, it would be strange if scientists did not group themselves in a hierarchical order. At its top are the super- scientists. In the words of the professor of physics in Aligarh University, they move closest to the nucleus—the nucleus being the Government. As the orbits are small, they have to be only a few. But they have tremendous power and patronage. `They are the know-alls and have-alls.' They have built up their own empires in laboratories, councils, seminars and committees. They observe an unwritten understanding not to tread on one another's toes. They come down heavily upon imaginary or possible rivals. Even as they cling to power and work smoothly for pelf and perks (including free trips abroad, preferably in summer), they create an impression of being de- tached and saintly if not other-worldly. They do little work. But effective public relations, which incidentally will bring them good chits from foreign scientists, enable them virtually to live a life of rich indolence.

That is why a few scientists here and from foreign countries, who have expressed themselves frankly, have doubted if there is in India today a climate of hope, hard work and pride in achievement. They feel that there occasionally is partiality in recruitment: merit alone does not necessarily govern either selection or promotion. Questions unasked but not out of mind of the selectors are: Who is your uncle? Are you a Brahmin? (uppermost in Mysore and Madras). Are you a Madrasi? (in Punjab). Placements which materialise in the United States within a matter of days take a few months before a de- cision is reached. Even those likely to find em- ployment have to face such a stifling atmosphere of suspicion and intrigue, with regional and other extraneous considerations taking precedence over merit, that they feel they are not wanted or valued in their own country. Reluctantly but ineluctably some of the brilliant men are forced to leave India again, not for the lure of money but because their work is appreciated. abroad.

More money is spent on grandiose multi- storey buildings—showpieces for visiting digni- taries—than planning and co-ordination of re- search. There is lo much red tape that administra- tive files take up a good deal of the time of those at the helm of government laboratories. Long procedures are involved in getting equipment. Rules drafted out of mistrust and intended to prevent corruption ensure that quotations have to be asked for the purchase of, say, a battery costing £6. Laboratories seem to be valued as monuments rather than as live centres of re- search.

For the directors of research, public relations, internal 'administration and attendance on VIPs are more important than work in the laboratory. Recently, a few days' diary of a leading scientist showed that one morning he spent an hour with the files as soon as he came in. By eleven it was time to meet a few foreign scientists in town over a longish cup of coffee. At three in the afternoon, he took some dignitaries round the institution. The next two days were spent on drafting an address for students of a distant university. Then he went away on tour, ostensibly for the purpose of fulfilling this engagement to deliver the address. The success of a few scientific charla- tans, with imitation Oxford accents and `charming wives,' at the expense of real men of science, causes a deep sense of frustration all around.

All this has prompted Professor J. B. S. Haldane to write about scientific bosses who re- gard their bright junior workeri with jealousy, steal their work or discourage originality lest the lack of it in themselves should be found out. He has mentioned the bibliography of publications by the head of a well-known laboratory in India which showed that he had prepared over fifty scientific papers in a year. This was ;- .Lid on the scientific world: for most of the paper's were the work of younger colleagues too junior and cowed down to deserve and demand a mention. Although they use up a lot of foreign exchange, the national laboratories, according to those who should know, do very little work of any value. India is woefully short of scientific per- sonnel. Yet, to cite one out of a hundred instances, a thirty-year-old geologist who gets Rs.2,800 a month in the United States, cannot get a Rs.600 job in India.

* It was fifteen years ago that Joseph, a fresh graduate, joined the service as research assistant in a government laboratory on a salary scale be- ginning at Rs.80 and ending up, if his life did not end earlier, at Rs.220. He was a hard-working man and found time to take the MSc degree while still at the job. In 1954 he took a loan of Rs.3,000 from the Government, went to the United States and became a PhD. This brought little preferment, though his salary was upgraded into the scale Rs.160-Rs.330. For what was giver' with one hand was taken away with the other: Rs.50 were deducted each month towards re' payment of the study loan. He was offered better jobs. But the dilatory procedures and 111,c probable reluctance of his bosses to lose a Ou worker combined to deny him over a dozen openings elsewhere. With five children to Wily tain in Bombay—he worked in New Delbi—he lost heart and took his life on January 6 b.Y putting a noose of telephone wire around his ' neck.

This has thrown the nation into a mood ° penitence. Mr. Nehru has described the suicide , as a 'tragic affair and a matter of grave concerti to the Government.' He ordered an inquiry int° the circumstances that led to the suicide. Pee; sented a report on it to Parliament and offered help for the education of Dr. Joseph's children' The Minister for 'Food and Agriculture, Mr' Patil, has collected Rs.75,000 on his own for the family, a Bombay newspaper another Rs.45,°(}t1 by public subscription which includes hundred of donations of one rupee each from its readers' Dr. Joseph dead has made his family rich beY°ea the dreams of Dr. Joseph alive. Mr. Nehru has also promised to revise cola" bersome procedures which hamper the speed' disposal of business by Government and to cot red tape. Better salaries and prospects of Pr°. motion are also likely to follow. What matter; more than the terms of service is the climate ' work. It is this which must improve. In governmental machinery, the emphasis is in variably on playing safe and avoiding respeesi; bility by passing the buck. Anyone who sh°1 courage and initiative can find himself accuse 't of corruption and nepotism. This is indeed happened last year, after the purchase of certss shares and scrips by the nationalised life inset' ; ance corporation, to two senior and competent civil servants.

* The country is short of food, the yield Per acre is anywhere between one-third and orlier tenth of the better yields elsewhere in the NktrIct and even the best yields in the country- Jt agricultural scientists are paid poorly. A real', report has drawn attention to the 'well-k0 fact that the scales of pay of the agricuitur5d [technical] services are much less as compare to those of the general administrative servit.e and even of other technical services such a; engineering, medical, education, etc. Agricult"r';', workers all over the country felt that only sympathy is being paid to agriculture, which not received sufficient importance.

Another committee also referred to the

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promotions in the agricultural services. It '0 ported : `Cases are not uncommon where, eves after twenty to twenty-fiVe years of meritorir); service, good workerg are unable to secure Pr S motion in the department. Delayed prornoticl, among agricultural personnel, when their Ccin leagues in administrative services or even commercial organisations get rapid prornotiel15 are disheartening and lead to frustration. It i5 paradox that the services concerned with develrlra ing the agricultural economy of the country aoof food production, so essential to the success our five-year plans, should be paid the worst and have the least chances of promotions.' There is no dearth of expert reports and advice on what needs to be done. But the Government is in such a state of paralysis that little actually gets done in spite of the best intentions of Mr. Nehru.

It is a major irony of our days that when so much needs to be done to lift India out of what Mr. Nehru once described as the cow-dung economy—for lack of coal, oil or gas, cow dung is wasted as fuel rather than used as fertiliser— the country should show such a woeful lack of leadership and organisation and reek with an atmosphere of demoralisation. There is less de- votion to public good and more to personal security or aggrandisement. Dr. Joseph's suicide is but a symptom of this malaise that affects India. There are hundreds of young and capable men without a job or without any prospect of being able to give of their best towards the country's progress. They are to be found every- where—in universities and laboratories, State- run enterprises and private factories, and in the civil service. So long as the people lack the will and the drive to face these problems, a solution must remain out of sight.

In the meantime, the larger import of the suicide may be lost on persons who have drama- tised and even apotheosised the sad case of Dr. Joseph. Many consciences seem to be salved, now that there is enough money to educate his children. Already he is a martyr and threatens to join the Indian pantheon as the patron saint of the frustrated. In this process; the primary need to bring about organisational changes in govern- ment establishments and to leave scope for men with qualities of initiative and leadership and the courage even to make mistakes, may be for- gotten. That would be a tragedy greater than Dr. Joseph's death.

Ten years ago, the geneticist Dr. Blakeslee went to the heart of the matter when he referred to two defects in the Indian world of science. These were—and still are—the eagerness to be noticed and the reluctance to give deserved credit to junior field workers. He had also re- ferred to the obstacles placed in the way of active teachers and research workers contacting inter- national scientists. These charges needed to be looked into. But Mr. Nehru is a visionary in a hurry. He has neither the time nor passion for details. Though grievances have multiplied, little attempt is being made to mend matters.

Dissatisfaction has spread faster than scientific inquiry. This can be checked only if the organisa- tion of research and the administration of various scientific institutions improve. Of this, however, there is no sign or hope. What is more disturbing is the fact that even a shrewd and sensitive man like Mr. Nehru seems to have made his peace with evils which he knows and abhors. There indeed

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Y 3 adY is no need for him to put up with supen talent, sycophancy and oligarchic bureaucrat If one' well-conducted institution may well r late the whole country, it would not be unch able to say that the reverse is also true. The of maladministration, self-centredness and rn believe which is rampant in the coup scientific organisations is likely to infect whole country. Or, perhaps, this is merel microscopic reflection of the evils that aln beset the country at large.