Dec 27, 1999

Shiv Visvanathan, 49
Social Anthropologist

MR ANGST

What would society do without those who sit back and gaze into the crystal ball? Shiv Visvanathan, who has watched the ups and downs of Indian scientists for years, is one such valuable citizen. Today, when he holds forth on science, it would be tough to guess that he is a sociologist by training. At 26, Visvanathan was teaching anthropology at Delhi University when he got intrigued by intellectuals. "I wanted to study intellectuals, and what better group than scientists?"

So began his tryst with science. "I am somebody who specialises in studying the politics of knowledge." Visvanathan laments nobody seems to enjoy science, that it's bureaucratised, there aren't any dissenting scientists, that NRIs are taking over. Unless imagination is brought back into science, there can be no great Indian scientists, he says darkly.      

 -Subhadra Menon

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