Science and the Indian
Both considerable interest and considerable value attach to the report on scientific research in India presented to the Government of India by Professor A. V. Hill, who went to India last winter to investigate this whole question. That a large extension of facilities for research in a wide variety of fields is needed, and that the research must be carried out by Indians, not Europeans, may be taken as axiomatic. But India must in certain respects look beyond her own borders, in order to draw on all available knowledge and experience, and to keep her own standards somewhere near the level of those prevailing elsewhere. Accordingly Professor Hill puts in the forefront of his report the recommendation that an _Indian Scientific Office be set up in London, staffed by specialists in agriculture, defence, engineering, industry and medicine, and that representative Indian scientists should be attached to the British Commonwealth Scientific Office in Washington. All that no doubt is desirable, but still more important is a wide extension of scientific research in India itself. In no field is that more necessary than agriculture, which must long, probably always, remain India's staple industry. The range of difference between the best current methods of cultivation—such, for example, as those inculcated by Brigadier Brayne in the Punjab—and the worst, as practised by millions of peasants throughout India, is immense. To convey the fruits of scientific research to the ryot is a formidable undertaking, but it must be attempted, and can no doubt be achieved. If in regard only to agriculture and to medicine Professor Hill's recommendations
were carried out, the effect on the physical well-being of India would be far-reaching. And there are many other recommendations than these. To begin with, India will need some assistance from the West, and it can and should be given and accepted without any kind of political implications. The country of men like Sir Jagadis Bose has its own contributions to make in the field of scientific research, but it may need to learn how to apply them.
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