Seated on a wheelchair, this nonagenarian dreams. Of a world where science wouldn’t be a subject taught in classrooms or technical gadgets that make life easy, but as an element that steers life around from its core.
M P Parameswaran’s words to those who come visiting him are also centred around this. Even when former chief secretary V Venu and his wife and successor Sarada Muraleedharan recently visited him, he urged them to reach out to the masses, to inspire dreams. There have been many like the bureaucrat couple that he mentored, over generations.
Parameswaran’s younger days were spent as a nuclear scientist with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), a job that he left in 1975 to take science to the common masses. For this, he joined Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP).
He devised strategies that helped people see science even in the chores they do in their homes. He spearheaded KSSP’s evolution into a mass movement.
Parameswaran has also penned over 30 books, in Malayalam and English. He was ousted from the CPM for writing the book Fourth World, which, apparently, was not aligned with the party line. Undeterred, he remained steadfast in making science lucid enough for people and working on issues that the world is slowly taking note of.
Excerpts from an interaction
What made you leave a prestigious job and take a grassroot-level science movement?
While studying in Moscow, I saw how people there were having a standard of life better than ours, and how it was a knowledge-driven society where people read a lot, even when they stood in queues. On returning after my higher studies in nuclear engineering, I felt our people should also be shown that science was not something in textbooks but a part of their life, something that shapes lives. Hence, I joined KSSP.
Leaving a job that could place you as an eminent nuclear scientist would have been something at that time…
I am a much better scientist now. When I joined as assistant director of the Kerala Bhasha Institute, I could bring out around 200 books, some of which explained complex nuclear engineering, the mystery of Fibonacci series, and even the Feynman lectures in simple language. Also, the ‘Science for Social Revolution’ of KSSP, I feel, was something that could make a deeper mark than my work at BARC.
So, didn’t you have any personal aspirations as a scientist?
I feel I am more of a scientist than someone who spends time only with theories. It’s more about how to make people see the science behind whatever nature makes them do as humans. The science of existence, the science of living, of everyday life. Of what use is science that does not benefit the masses or make them think? There were several institutes of higher learning here, but most of them were not known to the public beyond as a geographical landmark.
You must be glad to see many of these institutes engaging in outreach activities now…
That alone is not enough. What is happening inside and how that can be used by the people for their better understanding of nature should be effectively conveyed. There are several such programmes even in schools now. But beyond getting the students introduced to prominent scientists and programmes, how they can be part of scientific progress is not conveyed.
Also, interaction with common masses is still to receive the required attention. There is so much to learn from indigenous knowledge. That give and take doesn’t seem to be happening at the desired level. Science is not about gadgets or technology; it’s about the way nature operates.
What drew you to KSSP? What made it unique?
We went to the grassroots, informed through articles, magazines like Sastragati, and books. We also understood the way science had to be approached... starting from the rural side first. How science could help farmers, how waste could be managed better, how climate variations could be understood, etc. These are slowly gaining momentum now, but we envisaged it back then and had initiated work through our social programmes.
Your initial work with KSSP was in association with the CPI(M). Then there was disenchantment…. What had happened?
The party was not focused on the rural side and farmers. The focus group was the urban space and labourers. I argued that dedicated effort was required in the rural side as well. Marx, too, had written about it. But somehow, the idea didn’t go well with the party, and I was expelled.
After exiting the party, I continued my work based on the ideology I believed in. I became actively involved in the Integrated Rural Technology Centre (Palakkad), which focused on energy, agriculture, waste management, water management, etc. These are things that humans need.
How do you evaluate modern science communication?
Earlier, it was not possible to make a village self-sufficient because science had not developed to that extent to be communicated freely. Now, this can be done. Development has long been taken more as metropolitisation. Villages should come together as a federation and strive for self-sufficiency. It is more plausible now.
Where do you think Kerala society is when it comes to scientific temper?
A lot more has to be done. Man should learn to live in sync with nature. Till then, we cannot say we are scientific.
You often ask people to dream big. What are your dreams?
My dream is a society that knows how to live with nature. My dream is about villages that are knowledge centres of science, where they know how to grow their own food based on their climatic conditions, where they take care of their own needs, they love the nature around them, produce their energy... in short, are self-sufficient. I have many such dreams. I may not live to fulfil them. But someone will. I have hope. Else, human life won’t sustain long.