Reactionaries and Scientific Mind in India

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

It is the constitutional duty of every Indian citizen “to develop the scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform,” as stated in Article 51A(h) of Part IVA of the Constitution of India on Fundamental Duties (Constitution of India, 2024: 25). Despite the 42nd Constitutional Amendment of 1976, which enshrined the ideals of scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform, successive governments have continued to undermine scientific education and have failed to implement policies that nurture scientific consciousness. Religious, political, social, and cultural reactionaries–along with their allies in electoral politics who pander to them–erode both the Constitution and the constitutional duties of Indian citizens. Political parties and their leaders often resort to reactionary methods and propaganda to secure votes and win elections, thereby obstructing progressive reforms in society, the state, and the government.

A stagnant culture serves to protect the conservative ideals and interests of the elites. The Eurocentric theory of cultural relativism continues to legitimise various stagnant and primitive forms of reactionary practices in the name of protecting cultural identity in India. Similarly, community-based laws safeguard practices that are fundamentally reactionary and neo-traditional. Such legal provisions weaken the constitutional promise of reform in India. These democratic and constitutional contradictions call for progressive reform. However, political parties and their leaders exploit social, cultural, linguistic, religious, and regional identities to mobilise voters and secure electoral victories to govern the country and hinder progressive reforms. Such reactionary strategies in electoral politics give rise to reactionary governance, eroding the very conditions necessary for promoting the spirit of inquiry and deepening of democracy and citizenship rights in India.

Scientific temper means cultivating democratic knowledge traditions and consciousness through debates, disagreements, dissent, and the questioning of all forms of power and governance. It involves democratising and diversifying dominant knowledge traditions, dismantling authoritarianism in every form, and advancing scientific understanding among all the people in India. Scientific temper can emancipate people from blind beliefs and reactionary thoughts and practices in the country. It also requires expansion of investment in science and scientific education, which can accelerate the realisation of the constitutional promise of promoting a culture of scientific temper among all sections of Indian society.

In a diverse country like India, reactionary forces across different spheres of society hinder the growth of scientific temper and obstruct the path of progressive transformation in politics, culture, and the economy. These constitutional duties are further weakened by the budgetary priorities of both state and central governments, particularly in areas such as education, educational infrastructure, teaching and learning environments, training, and research. For instance, the University Grants Commission (UGC), which shapes policies and allocates funds for research and teaching in higher education, experienced a sixty-one percent budget cut in 2024. Despite being the fifth-largest economy, India spends the lowest percentage of its GDP on science and technology compared to other developed and developing countries. India spends the smallest share of its GDP for education compared to other BRICS nations.

Indian society, the state, and successive governments continue to remain hostages to various reactionary and regressive forces. These forces–through their culture, politics, and social and religious practices–oppose the culture of critical inquiry and reform, as any progressive change threatens the power, privileges, property and authority of both ruling and non-ruling reactionary groups in the country. Therefore, the governing and non-governing elites in India remain fundamentally resistant to progressive reform. Reactionary ideals and practices–such as caste, patriarchy, religious fundamentalism, and social, political, and economic discrimination and exploitation on the basis of class, gender, caste, region, and religion–continue to persist in India. These practices stand in direct opposition to the constitutional ideals of scientific temper and humanism. In such conditions, Indians are deprived of their constitutional duties.

The elites have created conditions that hinder progressive reforms and suppress critical inquiry, yet they blame the working class as the repository of conservative cultures and traditions. However, the working class has consistently embraced progressive reforms and radical change as a means to fulfil their constitutional duties–duties that are systematically obstructed by the elites in India. Working people have long supported bold reforms and progressive policies aimed at social, political, and economic transformation. Yet the capitalist classes have eroded the spirit of humanism through the processes of marketisation, commercialisation, and the commodification of human labour, nature, and relationships. Together, these forces undermine the Constitution of India and obstruct citizens from fulfilling their constitutional duties of developing scientific temper, humanism, inquiry and reform.

Therefore, opposing all reactionary forces is central to upholding the spirit and promises of the Indian Constitution and to deepening scientific, secular, and democratic consciousness among all people in India. It is essential to promote democratic, decolonial, decarbonised, and non-Eurocentric knowledge traditions to empower citizens by ensuring a culture of scientific and secular ethos–an ethos that can guide India and its people toward a progressive path of inquiry, reform, humanism, peace and prosperity.

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 12, Sep 14 - 20, 2025