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Agathiyar and Macaulay: Why Tamilnadu adores Bharathiyar, Periyar, Kamarajar and Annadurai?

Our Prime Minister has recently commented that India should abandon the education policies started by Macaulay during the British rule and produce more Sarvapalli Radhakrishnans. Of course, he has the luxary of addressing people (perhaps with a teleprompter) and never answering any questions. Radhakrishnan was born as Sarvapalli Radhakrishnayya to Sarvapalli Veeraswami and Seethamma, from a Telugu Brahmin family on 5 September 1888 in Tiruttani. Tiruttani is one of the six ‘padaiveedu’ (divine house) of Lord Murugan, who Tamils consider as their God and provider of the Tamil language. He had his early education at Voorhes College in Vellore. This was started by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph and Elizabeth Voorhees of the Reformed Church in America. He joined the Presidency College in Madras when he was 16 and got his Masters degree in 1907. The Wikipedia entry found [1] said he joined philosophy by chance rather than choice, which was not uncommon in his days, often dictated by affordability. His undergraduate Thesis was titled ‘The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions’. The criticism of vedanta having no room for ethics was a motivation for his research. This perhaps explains our Prime Minister’s adulation. Radhakrishnan became the President of India and his birthday is celebrated as Teacher’s Day in India. Radhakrishnan grew to be one of the great philosophers in the last century.

Our Prime Minister would not like to recognize that he was in Congress which made him the President following the education he received from the missionary colleges. Osho, who became Bhagwan Rajneesh, was very critical of the choice for Teacher’s day and pointed out that it’s absurd to honor a teacher who has become President, i.e. a politician. [2] This started within a few months after Radhakrishnan becoming a President, which in my view is incorrect. India had just become a Democracy and our population was used to praising the King in his front and so it is not surprising. He served one term as President and may have liked to serve one more term but that was not to be. Radhakrishnan was a beneficiary of the education system started by Macaulay and learned enough to challenge the Christian missionary’s way of portraying Hindusim. William Meston and Alfred George Hogg, advisors of Radhakrishnan commended his Thesis. In turn, Radhakrishnan commended Prof. Hogg as his distinughuished teacher and one of the greatest Christian thinkers we had in India. Our Prime Minsiter and all those criticising Macaulay Education may do well to ask “how did we let Macaulay come here and write our Education policy?” I remember a meme spreading lies about Macaulay being circulated distorting his words. Some blame Moghuls and British for the conditions we were in when Macaulay came (I do not agree with this). In the large scheme of things, his arrival and education policy did help the people of India. Where is India without it’s people?

I wrote this blog on 24 December, the remembrance day for Periyar and MGR, two of the most popular leaders in Tamilnadu in the 20th century. MGR broke away from Karuanidhi’s DMK, started by Annadurai, and started ADMK which became AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), a few years later. Many in India are surprised by the Dravidian movement which has been ruling Tamilnadu since 1967. Some equate it with communism without having any understanding. DMK is as capitalistic as BJP is. Rajaji supported Annadurai when DMK was elected the first time in 1967, more on this later in this blog.

Why has Tamilnadu voted for the Dravidian parties since 1967? To understand this, we need to know Agathiyar. Recently, R. Balakrishnan, a retired IAS officer spoke about the myth of Agathiyar (Agastya) in Tamil. [3] Tamil is among the oldest language still widely spoken. Tholkappiyam, a grammar treatise on Tamil was written more than 2000 years ago. A myth was created by some that Agathiyar was sent from Himalayas during a wedding ceremony of Lord Shiva as the whole population attended the wedding [4]. Earth (which was only the Indian subcontinent in this myth), unable to bear the weight of all devotees, tilted with North going down and South going up. To bring balance, Agathiyar, a dwarf saint, was sent to South by Lord Shiva. Agathiyar saw Deccan to have grown too tall, higher than Himalayas and stepped on it and reduced its height. He thought Deccan had become too arrogant with undue height and had to be taught a lesson.

He brought some water enroute, kaveri river given by Shiva in a small vessel (kamandalam). While he was on a meditation on Deccan (near what is Thalakaveri, origin of Kaveri river), Lord Ganesha comes as a crow and tilts the vessel and Kaveri starts flowing. When Agathiyar reached South, earth regained the balance and was standing flat (perhaps on the nose of a tortoise which stood all the way down, to borrow the words of Narlikar, one of the posthumous Bharathratna awardees). Agathiyar taught the tribes living in south Tamil which was given to him by Shiva. Shiva apparently gave Tamil to Agastya in Banaras as some others were arrogant and speaking in Sanskrit and not respecting Agastya. According to this myth, he wrote the first grammar book in Tamil which no one has ever seen. He is claimed to be the guru of Tholkappiyar whose Tholkappiyam is available now. Their brilliance in creating a myth to control a population is increcible.

Linguistic scholars know the origin of Tamil and Sanskrit. For people who want to know some history, there are many books and I recommend ‘Tamil a biography’ written by David Shulman. [5] Those who want to believe Sanskrit or Tamil is the oldest and better than the other langauge(s) may continue to believe so and not read this book or learn any history. I was in Agartala recently and went to a Shiva temple there. I saw the statue of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha. Perhpas, Murugan is not in their mythology. Murugan, the God Tamils worshipped was accommodated as the second son of Shiva in South and became known as Karthik in some parts of India. Clearly, whether Tamil came from Shiva or Murugan, it does not matter anymore. It can be appropriated and given a date after Sanskrit, which I suspect is the reason for creating such myths!

At Agartala temple taken on 22 May 2025

If I look at Agathiyar and Macaulay, the later seems to be an honest real human being who came to India with people stuck on past glory and introduced education for all. Certainly East India Companty did not come to India with the mission to teach and emancipate the locals. They came to make profits. The UK did not start ruling India to uplift the population here but to loot its wealth for its own benefit. Bengal famine was man (Churchill) made and Sashi Tharoor can talk eloquently about this. He may not like to talk about how uppercastes in Kerala used religion and their association with kings to exploit the people. The UK/Europe, likewise, would not like to characterize Churchill as a mass murderer but would characterize Hitler as one. Coming back to Macaulay, Radhakrishnan ‘s advisors from UK, after teaching him research methodology, appreciated his work and gave him the degree. They did not try to shut him down for showing that the view of Christianity about Hinduism was wrong. They were open minded scholars willing to learn from a student. However, those who created the myth of Agastya, would like the myth to continue and they are not open minded to look at any evidence.

Tamil had been in use all over India in the past. Brahui language spoken in northwest Pakistan/Afghanistan is closely related to Tamil and other Dravidian languages. Apparently, Brahui also means ‘God’s language’. Gandhi gave them a way to appropriate Brahui by saying “Ishwar Allah Tere Naam’. However, their reason for existence is to exclude Islam and hence, Urdu a language really developed in India may be considered foreign soon. Those days, everywhere, God was there for explaining things people could not understand. I suppose, this will continue as long as humans manage to keep earth inhabitable for them and survive. As a proverb in Tamil says, what we could learn is only a handful and we could never learn, is like the whole world (கற்றது கைமண் அளவு கல்லாதது உலகளவு).

People speaking Tamil have eventually settled in what is the state of Tamilnadu today in India. Of course, some Tamils have migrated to Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia [6] where Tamil is one of the official languages. Agathiyar is a mythological individual who was invented to appropriate the people and their language by people who wanted to claim Sanskrit as the mother of all languages. This is the worst anyone can do to someone else. While Prime Minister is condemning the Macaulay education, his party and Governor are trying to propogate the myth today. TN Governor Ravi and his party/group associates are not trying to honour one of the oldest language but trying to appropriate it without ever contributing to it. Tamil scholars have slammed their attempt to recreate the ‘Agashtya expedition’ based on a myth to appropriate what is not their own. [7] According to the report in the Federal website, the organizers of Kasi Tamil Sangam from IIT Madras did not respond to the critique’s comments. Unlike the advisors of Radhakrishnan from UK, the organizers from IIT Madras did not want to listen and discuss but participated in propagating the myth. They are using the IIT Madras created by Nehru who wanted scientific temper to be in the Constitution, to do exactly the opposite. Thinking about it, this is not different from the myth of Agathiyar who was invented to keep the people in dark.

Periyar came from a rich family and joined congress and worked with Rajaji, who was then a tall leader from the Madras presidency. During a visit to Kasi, Periyar was discriminated by the local Brahmins which changed him. In Tamilnadu as well, he did not like Congress party conferences serving food for Brahmins separately. I joined the Indian Institute of Science in 1997 and have written early about its beginning. [8] In this huge campus of about 370 acres, no restaurants were allowed to serve non-vegetarian food. Student hostels had separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian messes and one which served both. In the annual lunch arranged for all faculty and family, non-vegetarian food was not allowed. When I became the Secretary in the Faculty club organizing the annual lunch, I arranged non-vegetarian food for those who prefer that. Not surprisingly, that was a significant majority. While those promoting such myth get annoyed with the ‘minority appeasement’, they promote majority harassment by imposing the minority preferences in public places.

I was in a committee to bring a restaurant in the campus. The committee decided the menu and fixed prices for every item, including vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. When the restaurant opened, only vegetarian items were served. When I inquired with the management, they informed me that some influential people had asked them not to offer non-vegetarian dishes. After complaints from me and others, they started serving non-vegetarian dishes outside the restaurant in an open area. One day, I saw a students group wanting to sit together and the hotel management not allowing them as some of them wanted non-vegetarian and others vegetarians. They wanted to sit together and eat. I complained to the Director that IISc was practicing segregation and the restaurant started serving all items inside. This happened during 2005-2010. I can imagine how it was during Periyar’s time. Most of these staunch vegetarians did not miss a chance to go abroad for their studies, conferences or vacation and rub shoulders with Europeans, Americans, Japanese or Chinese whose primary food is meat, dominated by beef. However, they wanted the public space in India to remain vegetarian. No-one can object to how anyone lived in their home or their food preferences. While using public space, forcing a majority to follow your way of life is unacceptable. Recently, Karnataka CM was accused of having non-vegetarian when some of them were celebrating some festival. This must end. Periyar’s fight was not just about food.

Rajaji as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu did a few things that costed his position twice. During his term as CM before independence, he enforced Hindi and lost his seat. He asked Tamils to speak Hindi on the street and Tamil at home. I have written two other blogs on this issue [9,10] for those who are interested to learn more. Two things he did as CM in 1950s was to close down a large number of Government schools and introduce vacational training (kula kalvi) for students to learn their family skills, carpentry, goldsmith, … Periyar opposed both strongly and encouraged Kamaraj to take on Rajaji within Congress. Rajaji was forced to resign and his candidate for CM was defeated by Kamaraj who became the CM. Periyar asked Kamaraj to fight in Gudiyatham, far from his home, to become a Congress MLA. Annadurai did not field any candidate from DMK. Kamaraj won the election against a communist candidate.

On becoming CM, he re-opened all the schools closed by Rajaji. He stopped ‘kula kalvi’ plan of Rajaji. Kamaraj is called a ‘Leader who opened the eyes of the people through education’ (கல்விக் கண் திறந்த தலைவர்) in Tamilnadu. He is considered by some historians as the first Dravidian CM in Tamilnadu. Later, as Congress CM, when he was trying to impose Hindi, Annadurai led DMK to defeat him. In 1967, when Annadurai won and formed the first DMK Government, Rajaji was supporting him. Let me repeat: Periyar and Annadurai supported Kamaraj to become Congress CM against the policies to deny education for all. Rajaji supported Annadurai to defeat Kamaraj as he did not like some of the policies of Congress at that time. Annadurai as CM, changed the name of the state to Tamil Nadu and led Tamilnadu for two years before passing away in 1969. Like some feel about Patel who passed away within a few years after Independence, I wish Annadurai lived a few more years. Today, in Tamilnadu, one group claims Bharathiyar mentioned Tamilnadu before Annadurai. This is tried after the attempt by TN Governor Ravi to suggest the name of the state to be Tamilagam received a lukewarm response. One of the legislations Annadurai brought was to legalize marriages that were conducted without any rituals sanctified by a religious leader. As I have mentioned in another blog, my marriage was conducted this way.

During the first half of twentieth century several social reformers were fighting against caste based discrimination of fellow humans in Hinduism. Different leaders chose different paths. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism. Narayana Guru did not convert but reformed Hinduism in Kerala and ensured that upper castes do not exploit lower castes. Ramalinga Vallalar denounced all rituals and promoted worshipping only light without any form. He wore only white clothes. Gandhi preached against untouchability and wanted the temples to be opened for all castes. He had a lot of discussion with Periyar and Ambedkar about social reforms. Shahu Maharaj in Kohlapur started schools for everyone including women. When I visited Shivaji University Kohlapur, I was gifted a biography of Shahu Maharaj which was dedicated to some of the reformers including Periyar, image shown below. [11] Periyar chose atheism as he was convinced that much of the population was controlled by religion to keep them in dark. For those who follow Tamil, I would encourage you to listen to the speech in the video of Reference 4 below. For others, I have given the gist above. Periyar and Rajaji remained friends for life and they both lived to mid 90s.

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Bharathiyar’s poems are being discussed in Tamilnadu today with every group making different claims. Bharathiyar is one of my favourite poet. I have mentioned often that he deserved the Nobel in literature except that he wrote mostly in Tamil and in his time, no one could promote him. He passed away when he was only 39 and had written from his childhood until his death. I have read his translation of Bhagavad Gita in Tamil with a long Introduction written by him. He was a staunch devotee of Krishna and wrote many poems on Krishna. He was a liberal at heart and wrote about women’s liberation and abolition of caste as well. He evolved and naturally his views evolved. For those who can follow Tamil, I recommend Sugi Sivam’s speech on this issue [12]. Towards his last years Bharathiyaar wrote “கடலினைத் தாவும் குரங்கும், வெங் கனலிற் பிறந்ததோர் செவ்விதழ்ப் பெண்ணும், வடமலை தாழ்ந்தத னாலே தெற்கில் வந்து சமன்செயும் குட்டை முனியும், நதியி னுள்ளேமுழு கிப்போய் அந்த நாகர் உலகிலோர் பாம்பின் மகளை விதியுற வேமணம் செய்த திறல் வீமனும் கற்பனை என்பது கண்டோம்”. In English “We now understand that the monkey flying over an ocean (hanuman), a beautiful woman born in a fire, the dwarf saint coming from Himalayas to balance the earth (agastya), and Bima who went under water to the Naga world to marry a snake’s daughter are all fictions’. Today, as every political party in Tamilnadu tries to own him and ask their friends to condemn him, the fact is Bharathidasan, who changed his original name of Subburathinam was active in Dravidian politics. Kalki (author of the popular novel Ponniyin Selvan and Congress supporter in those days) started promoting Bharathiyar only after his death and did not appreciate Bharathiyar’s progressive writing.

To conclude, I find those who created a myth of Agathiyar to appropriate Tamil to be more evil than Macaulay who came here and drafted an Educational policy to take education to all. The Union Government introduced the Viswakarma Program recently, which made Rajaji lose his CM position in TN. At the same time, the Government introduced a plan to take students from Gurukul (studying Vedas?) to IIT (13). On the one hand, they claim Vedas have everything that we can ever know. On the other hand, they sneak through a plan to admit students from Gurukul to IIT. If this is not an admission that Vedas do not have everything and in today’s India IIT education promises a good life, what else can be? If one were to think logically, Government should have given a plan to admit students who may qualify for Viswakarma program to IIT and help them update their skills at the Indian Institutes of Technologies. They have introduced a plan to stop the education of people who work with their hands. They introduce special plans to give IIT Education to students who go to Gurukul! Tamilnadu Government rejected the Viswakarma program and introduced another bill to support people who are above 30. Union Government introduced the bill to support youth just after their highschool. I wish a middle ground is found.

No wonder, most people in Tamilnadu today remember the important contributions of Bharathiyar, Periyar, Kamarjar and Annadurai as education for all became a motto in the state. This was continued by every CM after them from Karunanidhi, MGR, Jeyalalitha and now Stalin. The results are clear for those who want to see. Empowering the population can be the only goal for any Government. If a Government tries to promote a myth as knowledge to keep the people in dark, I would be doubtful of their intentions. Home minister wants to remove English and introduce Hindi which neither has great literature as Tamil or Sanskrit nor modern knowledge as English. Is this yet another way of keeping people in the dark? Mohan Bhagawat says he would not care about the Constitution and India is a Hindu Nation. Modi says he and Gawai rose to their positions thanks to the Constitution. I would like our Constitution to guide our growth.

References:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvepalli_Radhakrishnan Found on 24 December 2025.
  2. https://www.osho.com/osho-online-library/osho-talks/celebration-completion-radhakrishnan-a643cc1a-4ad?p=79716b3b872b30cfa6ab1cf65246c88a Found on 24 December 2025
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlWlMJZwfhA Agashtyar: A relook. Speech in Tamil.
  4. https://youtu.be/EUhLto9aQLc?si=cR4zYuoHVR0HXON7 Listened on 24 December 2025
  5. David Shulman, Tamil a biography 2016 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29940795-tamil
  6. Somewhat coincidentally (helped by Google and AI?) an audio-recording of a speech in Tamil by M R Radha in Malaysia was recommended by YouTube. I would recommend this for anyone interested in learning how Tamilnadu and Malaysia were in those days. https://youtu.be/LdgXUgrZaBw?si=aKEJbglkoc9e_cVw
  7. https://thefederal.com/category/states/south/tamil-nadu/tamil-scholar-tenkasi-to-kashi-agasthya-expedition-217197 (Found on 24 December 2025).
  8. https://earunan.org/2018/05/27/j-n-tata-planned-the-indian-institute-of-science-and-swami-vivekananda-did-not-influence-it/
  9. https://earunan.org/2025/10/21/birth-centenary-of-m-ilanchezhiyan-social-activist-writer-and-an-excellent-academic/
  10. https://earunan.org/2019/09/14/languages-in-india-some-experiences-and-a-suggestion/
  11. Jaysingrao Pawar, “Rajarshi Shahu Chhatrapati: A social revolutionary”, Maharashtra Ithihas Probodhini, Kohlapur. 2013.
  12. திருப்பரங்குன்றம் யாருக்கு சொந்தம் | Suki Sivam Speech | Thiruparankundram – YouTube Accessed on 24 December 2025.
  13. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/government-throws-open-iits-for-students-from-gurukuls/articleshow/122961118.cms#:~:text=India’s%20education%20policy%20is%20undergoing,modern%20scientific%20and%20academic%20inquiry. (Accessed on 25 December 2025)
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Languages in India: Some experiences and a suggestion

India/Bharatha Kanda has been around for millennia with many languages spoken, without any national language! Some mention about the 56 kingdoms in ancient India. People have been traveling across the length and breadth of India, without a passport or a link language. People learned languages as needed. During the independent movement, some in the north of India decided India should have one language and they chose Hindi. Even before Independence, Hindi was pushed in all parts of India, where it was not spoken. In Madras State Rajaji as Congress Chief Minister imposed Hindi in April 1938. He went to the extent of asking people to speak in Hindi in the streets and Tamil at home. This led to a massive protest in the State (1). Protestors were not just political parties with different views. It included people from all background including religious leaders from Shaivaite Matts. Many political leaders were arrested and two named, Thalamuthu and Natarajan, died in prison. In Chennai, you can see a Government building named after the two who died in prison. By February 1940, Hindi imposition was lifted. Congress lost the next election.

Natrajan and Thalamuthu who died during the protest. I would recommend a recent article by A R Venkatachalapathy about this protest. (4)

After Independence, Hindi imposition was attempted again. In Parliament, attempts to make Hindi as the National language failed. Hindi and English were kept as two official languages and many of the languages spoken in India were kept as National Languages. As far as my knowledge goes, that was the only vote in which President joined to tilt the balance towards Hindi. Parliament vote was divided exactly in half for/against Hindi. Many of the states in India started following a three language formula.

As the Indian Government was trying to push Hindi as the National Language, Paksitan Government pushed Urdu as the National Language. Indian Government yielded when there was widespread opposition in making Hindi the National Language. Pakistan Government did not yield. In 1948 itself, students of Dhaka University staged a massive protest. On 21st February 1952, Pakistani police fired an unarmed and peaceful student demonstration and killed many students. International Mother-Language day is celebrated on this day. Bangladesh was born in 1970s (2). It would be interesting to look at the history of Hindi/Urdu. As I have pointed out UP has been having major Hindu/Muslim conflicts and built BHU and AMU, while Bangalore and Calcutta built IISc and IACS. From what I have learned, Hindi and Urdu both originated from Hindustani. Hindi and Urdu have more in common than Hindi and Sanskrit. Marati and Bengali may be closer to Sanskrit than Hindi.

Forgetting the experience before Independence, Congress Government in the Madras state again tried to impose Hindi in the 1960s. This may have been one of the reasons a tall leader from Tamil Nadu Kamaraj and an incorruptible Kakkan lost the next election. DMK came to power in 1967. Unlike the Parliament which was divided in half, Tamil Nadu assembly voted unanimously for the two language formula of having Tamil and English. I must have started my schooling around that time and I did not know all this history. I learned Tamil and English in school in Madurai. I did pass Prathmic and Madhyama offered by the Dhakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha and had learned to read and write Hindi. I went to IIT Madras and then to IIT Delhi.

During my stay in Delhi, I did not like the way some assumed and insisted on Hindi. One day, after we watched a Tamil movie in the hostel, as we were going to have some tea, we were chatting in Tamil among ourselves. One person on the street shouted at us in Hindi: ‘Aap Dilli may hain, Hindi may bathkaro’. Though I had learned about Hindi protest, I did not know much details at that time. I certainly did not like this. After IIT Delhi, I went to Kansas State University. In my first week, I met a guy from India at the University library. He started talking to me in Hindi and I told him that, I did not know Hindi that well. He was shocked and asked me: How can you be from India and not know Hindi? I realized he had no clue about India. What was surprising, many in the Hindi speaking states assume every one in India knows and speaks Hindi. They have not been taught about India.

After returning to IIT Kanpur as a faculty member, I went to Calcutta to attend a symposium. One of my close friends from Kansas days came to Calcutta from TIFR, Bombay. We were walking in the streets of Calcutta and heard people speaking in Bengali. My friend from Bombay was surprised and told me: Look at these Bengalis, they are speaking in Bengali on the streets. I was even more surprised by his comment and replied: What do you expect the Bengalis to speak? He then told me that they speak Marati at home and Hindi on the streets. I then told him that he should visit Tamil Nadu.

Now we see yet another attempt to make Hindi the only link language in India with the home minister claiming Hindi can unite India. I certainly don’t agree. According to Wikipedia today, world over ” 178 countries have at least one official language, and 101 of these countries recognise more than one language.” (3) India has two official languages and 22 National Languages. I do not see any need for India to have one link language which should be spoken in the streets all over India. Though India became an independent country in 1947, India has survived for several millennia including seven decades after independence without having such a link language. Imposing one is not needed. Starting from Rajaji in 1937, the proposers of Hindi have given one after another illogical reasons. One such argument was Hindi will improve the employment opportunities. It was never the case. After 7 decades of three language formula by all states except Tamil Nadu, Hindi states are among the least developed. For the home minister to say ‘Hindi is needed for Unity’, is indeed unfortunate as he is ignoring the fact that India has been around and has progressed well over the last seven decades.

Would Hindi help all Indians travel across the length and breadth? It is not fair to ask everyone to learn your language to help you on travel. I propose the following, which many may not like. Local language/Hindi/English be used in all sign boards across India. Local language and English remain as official languages in the States that do not want to have Hindi as an official language. All Government services, announcements by flights and trains should be made in local languages in addition to English/Hindi. If people migrate to different states, they will learn the local language. They have been doing it for millennia! Forcing Hindi on people against their wishes is not wise.

  1. M. Ilanchezhiyan, “Thamizhan Thodutha Por” (War waged by Tamils) II Edition 1986.
  2. Safar Ali Akanda, Language Movement and the Making of Bangladesh”, The University Press Limited, Bangladesh 2013
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_language
  4. https://www.rediff.com/news/special/when-the-south-rose-against-hindi/20190614.htm

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Borders in Science and Nation: The need for them and the need to have a healthy disrespect for them!

Tamil is an ancient language that has been around for several millennia. Several philosophers have written poetry, which are very old, but their content remains applicable for all the times. One such poem was written by Kanian Poongundranaar during the Tamil Sangam (which are perhaps comparable to Academic Societies today) period, which started around 300 BC (1). This poem starts as: யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர் (Yaadhum Oorae, yaavarum kaelir), loosely translated as “All towns are the same and all people are our kin”. This is depicted in the United Nations Organization for the profound truth it conveys (2). The translation given in the Wikipedia page quoted says ‘all men are our kin’. This is incorrect and ‘all are our kin’ is the right translation. He did not envision any borders between towns!

I have written earlier about how I became a physical chemist, bordering physics and chemistry. I have been in the editorial advisory board of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), a Journal published by the Owner societies. The title of the Journal implies that the border between physics and chemistry are thin and either can be the first or last name, for the sub-discipline. More importantly, this Journal showed how borders between the nation-states of Europe had become thin. This Journal combined several favorite Journals in physical chemistry published in various nations in the UK and Europe (among them were two Journals named after two of the greatest scientists of all time, Faraday and Bunsen, Faraday Discussion, published in UK and ‘Berichte der Bunsengesellschaft für physikalische Chemie‘ published in German). PCCP has established itself as one of the leading Journals in this area. Brexit may have happened but I am confident that PCCP will continue, at least, for my lifetime. It is published by the Owner Societies, which has many of the European Chemical Societies as its members. A few years ago, Chemistry, an Asian Journal came into existence as well.

When I was in high school in the 1970s, I remember learning that chemistry is a study of matter and physics is a study of energy. Of course, Einstein’s famous equation E = mc^2 was already known having energy on the left hand side and matter (it’s mass) on the right hand side. One can translate this equation as physics = chemistry. However, still physics and chemistry as individual and independent disciplines exist and it may continue to exist. One subtle difference, that would be lost in this generalization is that chemists worry more about how atoms combine to form molecules or liquids or solids. They worry about the interactions between them and how they transform from one to another. Study of making and breaking bonds between atoms is indeed chemistry. Though atomic physics exists, there is no atomic chemistry. Atoms have to join together for chemistry!

Science, as a pursuit of understanding nature really cannot have a border. However, it is important to have disciplines and sub-disciplines, and sub-sub-disciplines and for individual researchers, focus on one specific problem in a narrow sub-discipline is needed. Divide and conquer works. One soon realizes that even to solve a specific problem in Science, it is important to have contributions from many disciplines. Again, taking a personal example, we have established experimental laboratories in India, where we can make the weakest bond, even between inert gases such as argon and neon and study them with a pulsed nozzle Fourier transform microwave spectrometer. We can also break the strongest bond, the triple bond between two N atoms in N2, in a single pulse shock tube. In both laboratories, building the experimental facilities involved knowledge of mechanical engineering, electronics and communication engineering, vacuum techniques, physics, chemistry and, of course, maths. One lifetime is not enough to learn all these thoroughly but even to talk to experts in all these area one needs to understand these subjects to some extent. It is important to collaborate and that involves mutual trust and respect. Learning all these subjects is not trivial and may require different skills one person may not be able to acquire. None of this skills are more important than others.

We have had humans on this earth for 200,000 years or more.  Currently, we have more than 7 billion people on our earth and they are distributed in about 250+ countries. We started living in caves, feeling secure and hunting animals, migrated to plains, started farming, developed languages to communicate with each other and started developing codes  of conduct so that we can all coexist. We really had no choice about whether to exist, but having come in to this world, we had to find ways to coexist. Religion was found and religious texts prescribed rules for life. Eventually, over the last few hundred years, the nation-state model has started working well. Most nations are democratic and they have a constitution to guide them with elected representatives who have a fixed term.

Given the size of this world, it is not practical to be governed by one ruler or executive and so we have many countries, which are divided in to states, which are divided into districts, and so on. And we have the United Nations. Any conflict in smaller entities is resolved by discussion and arbitration, with mutually agreed rules. While these borders are needed for practical purposes, as the borders in Science, we need to realize that these are arbitrary and came in to existence rather recently. As much as a chemist has no reason to hate a physicist, I don’t see any reason for a person from one district or state or country to hate another one from a different district or state or country. One could add, language and religion as well, which are drawing borders between people. As it is true in the border areas of science, one can note that in the borders drawn based on language, religion, state, nations etc… there is really no big difference between the two sides.

Those from India now are worried about two things as a nation. Tension in the borders between India and Pakistan and the tension in the borders between the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. When we realize that the senior leader of the ruling party BJP, Advani was born in what is Pakistan today, one can get a different perspective. Hosur, a small town in Tamil Nadu, bordering Karnataka, has it’s name in Kannada (Hosur in Kannada means new town). I have been to temples 60 km north of Bangalore (Yoganarasimha temple), where I saw the statues of 13 Aalwargal (Vaishnavite saints, following Vishnu as their God) who wrote poems in Tamil. Clearly the borders have been drawn recently. If we use them for any reason other than administrative simplicity. we will have problems.

Scientists know the importance of collaboration. Again, taking an example from a field that has excited me i.e. the hydrogen bond, one of the most important paper was published recently in Science, from China through a collaboration between physicists and chemists (3). They could see ‘the hydrogen bond’, when seeing atoms and molecules were thought to be impossible, not so long ago! Readers having no access to Science, may not be able to read it and anyone interested is welcome to read a commentary I wrote in Current Science, which is available online with free access (4). Naturally, when people from across the borders work together, they can achieve lot more than what is possible when they work independently. However, not only in Science, but also in human relations, mutual trust and respect are important. When that is lost, there will be tension,war, destruction …. Sooner or later, people realize that, it is better to develop mutual trust and respect and find ways to coexist.

I recommend an autobiograpy written by Prof. Curt Wittig from the University of Southern California (5). It is long but worth reading. A part of this was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A in a Festchrift in his honor a few years ago. He has done some beautiful experiments in physical chemistry that helped in understanding the microscopic details of how chemical reactions happen. From his autobiography, one can learn a few things about the nations and their borders in Europe. The city in which he was born kept changing hands to different countries. His experiences in the Chicago southern neighborhood is unbelievable. It also shows that where you started in life hardly matters. Given the right opportunities, you can excel in your career and life.

In closing, let me reiterate: One should not take any of the borders too seriously, if one is interested in real progress. In the references below, two are to Wikipedia pages and they have to be understood as unauthenticated information.

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangam_period Accessed on 20 September 2016.
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaniyan_Pungundranar Accessed on 20 September 2016.
  3. J. Zhang, P. Chen, B. Yuan, W. Ji, Z. Cheng, X. Qiu, Science,Vol. 342, Issue 6158, pp. 611-614 2013. Link: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6158/611
  4. E. Arunan, Curr. Sci. VOL. 105, NO. 7, pp 892-894.  Link: http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/105/07/0892.pdf
  5. C. Wittig autobiography, longer version available at http://www.curtwittig.com/wp-content/uploads/curt-wittig-autobio.pdf
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