Can’t help but feel a twinge of pride as India joins erstwhile U.S.S.R., U.S.A., the European Space Agency, Japan and China in the elite club of nations that have sent missions to the moon. The day belongs to those dedicated bunch of people at the ISRO and their associates who have built something extraordinary, something truly world-class, in the midst of all the chaos and mediocrity that is the rest of the country. For let us not forget that all the other countries before us have either been well-developed western democracies or nationalistic authoritarian governments. Never before has a fledgling democracy of a billion people – which is still trying to find its way as a nation, torn by insurgencies, intolerance, poverty – managed to produce such a remarkable feat. It shows the power of the individual in India who, given half the resources and opportunities as his counterparts around the world can still achieve as much (and at a much cheaper cost – the mission is expected to cost 3.8bn rupees ($78m), considerably less than the Japanese and Chinese probes sent to the Moon last year). It shows how much we can achieve as a nation if we stop thinking short-term.
Of course there are the usual criticisms and vitriol being thrown around. The comments on the story at this Canadian news site is a case in point. A few of them:
- “Just great! A country that has a million people living and dying on the streets of Calcutta has the cash to fund a moon-mission. Seems to me their priorities might be a bit off here.”
- “ummm…excuse me. Shouldn’t India be using that money to develop it’s nation and feed it’s people? They r putting the wagon ahead of the horse. First things first, India. first things first.”
- “Don’t you think India should provide water to the people first than lock for water elsewhere?”
- “FOOD-WATER-HEALTH CARE-CHILD LABOR LAW-WOMEN RIGHT I dont know about many of you but I would think this is a little more important that sending nothing to the moon: but backwards will be backwards I guess”
Although all of the above is very true (except for the artistic exaggeration of ‘a million people living and dying on the streets of Calcutta’!), but they suffer from the not-so-uncommon tendency of people to over-simplify. Development is all-round and the benefits of development in one field almost always has reverberations in another. When India initially started on its path of economic growth, there was only information technology. But what it did essentially was put in a good word for the rest of India. Some of the Americans who were employing these Indian IT professionals might have been impressed with their intelligence and English (not to mention their low salaries!) and spread the word that there was a pool of low-cost, high-quality engineers to be found in India. (“And we thought there were only elephants, snake-charmers, half-naked sadhus and Ravi Shankar!!”) Consequently, other industries started taking a look and the whole BPO industry was born. This helped fuel a boom which was good for Indian industry as a whole. And now the next logical step is being taken in India – take all this money and expertise and invest in agriculture. Which will hopefully in the long run, if we do not let religious strife, regionalism and insurgencies tear the country apart before that, address all the issues that these good people have raised. And of course, the Indian space program has always been practical and pragmatic – the most we have done till now is launch weather, mapping and communication satellites which have no lofty ideals other than development. So let us have this one indulgence! Or if you prefer, you could look at it as an advertisement campaign (you wouldn’t tell Pepsi or Coke India to stop their expensive ad-campaigns and invest in the welfare of the country would you?!). What this does is generate further publicity about ISRO’s value-for-money commercial satellite launch capabilities, which will bring in further revenue for ISRO and drive its growth and India’s development.
Andrew McKie beautifully argues India’s case here in an article in The Telegraph, UK. He says,
“But why would any country not be proud of attempting to add to our knowledge of the universe? For any nation, launching a rocket should not be seen as an exercise in pointless one-upmanship, but as perhaps the ultimate expression of optimism, ingenuity, bravery, and rational, long-term planning for the future.
…
Because maintaining a space programme is not only not a waste of money, it is the most sensible thing any country can do. Almost every aspect of modern life has been shaped by the technology created for astronauts and satellites.”
And then he adds, what to me seems to be the whole essence of this endeavour,
“It is only 500 years or so since people launched themselves in small wooden boats towards the New World. That then seemed an almost suicidal and fantastic enterprise, but the rewards for the adventurous, and for the rest of civilisation, were incalculable. Star Trek was wrong: space is not the final frontier. Breaking into space is merely pushing down a barrier into an almost infinite realm of possibilities.”
It is this human spirit of curiosity and exploration which has triumphed this day in the world’s second most populous nation. And that is what gives me hope for my country amongst all the other things going so wrong there. Though I suspect that was the last thing on the minds of the decision-makers when they gave the green light to this project. It was for such crass things as nationalism and one-upmanship, I am sure!
(Image courtesy ISRO)