PL. DHAR | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (original) (raw)

Papers by PL. DHAR

Technology is generally viewed as the tool for application of scientific knowledge to promote hum... more Technology is generally viewed as the tool for application of scientific knowledge to promote human welfare. Since the age-old problems of inequity, poverty, strife, crime and violence still stare in our face, there must be a grave inadequacy in our science and technology set up. Analysis reveals that the roots of this inadequacy lie in the fact that the youth, the future engineers and scientists, are being given an education that completely sidesteps the whole question of real human welfare, human values and goals. Clearly there is an urgent need to rectify the situation. Though most educationists appreciate the need for education in human values, there seem to be three serious misgivings about it.

Any attempt at evolving policies to address the global climate change and energy security issues ... more Any attempt at evolving policies to address the global climate change and energy security issues must take a holistic view of the various factors influencing them. These seven factors -Energy, Ecology, Economy, Employment, Equity, Entropy, Ethics-constitute a web with intricate interconnections. The paper gives a glimpse of these interconnections and indicates how lack of recognition of these interconnections has led, in the past, to suggestions -like reducing the specific fuel consumption of carswhich, have eventually proved to be counter productive. The paper also illustrates how an appreciation of these interconnections can suggest novel strategies to address these twin problems. The analysis presented in the paper brings out that the present crisis of energy, ecology, economy, (un)employment and (in) equity has its roots in a crisis of ethics and values, which in turn influence the technology choice.

Technology is not value neutral, as many people tend to believe, but carries with it the value sy... more Technology is not value neutral, as many people tend to believe, but carries with it the value system of its progenitors. In fact, the values act like a "sieve" which allows only those technologies to "pass through" and propagate which are in consonance with it. These values remain encoded in the technology in the form of its basic characteristics, akin to the "genetic-code". Thus, the modern technology, which has been evolved and nurtured in a crass materialistic world view, has fundamental traits like centralization, mass production through automation, planned obsolescence etc. all of which enable it to give high profits to the industrialists. It is quite natural that propagation of this technology has played a key role in spread of materialism and all its adjuncts like consumerism, inequity, corruption, strife, crime, violence etc. throughout the world. Gandhiji, visionary that he was, could foresee this fact about a century ago, much before the onset of these problems, and suggested the evolution of a humane technology. In this paper this relationship between technology and values is brought out in detail through numerous illustrations and suggestions are made for changes in technologies in tune with Gandhian vision which could help bring about a change in the worldview.

Insight meditation or Vipassanaa # , as it is popularly known today, is a powerful technique for ... more Insight meditation or Vipassanaa # , as it is popularly known today, is a powerful technique for purification of mind through self-observation. The unique feature of this meditation, as being taught in the present times by Shri S.N.Goenka and his assistants, is to train the mind to observe continually, without any reaction, the somatic sensations and the concomitant mental conditions. It is claimed that the roots of the impressions stored in the subconscious mind, lie in these somatic sensations. Though these sensations are occurring incessantly in human body-due to various bio-chemical and electromagnetic interactions-these remain below the threshold of awareness of most people, unless the mind is suitably trained. But the so called " subconscious/ unconscious" mind is constantly in "touch" with these and therefore governs our response to them. This response, based on our past conditionings, is that of craving for the pleasant sensations and aversion towards the unpleasant ones. Since these sensations are evanescent, and would naturally change, the reactive mind is always dissatisfied, full of what the Buddha, the discoverer of this technique of developing mindfulness, calls tanha (or trishna in Sanskrit)--craving for the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant. This tanha , or the desire to have it (and all things in life) otherwise, as one likes, is the root cause of perpetual dissatisfaction that characterizes the modern life. The practice of non-reactive observation of these sensations as taught in Vipassana enables us to "train" the mind to remain equanimous, in view of the fact of impermanence of everything in this sensory world. This reduces tanha and enables the practitioner to accept the present cheerfully, thus liberating him from the bondage arising from the reactions of an unwise mind.

In spite of so much advancement in science and technology, the society is still besieged with the... more In spite of so much advancement in science and technology, the society is still besieged with the age old problems of inequity, poverty, strife, crime and violence. Though superficially, these problems seem to be disparate, having their origin in the economic, the political and the social systems, their roots can be traced to the fact that the youth are being given an education that completely sidesteps the whole question of human values and goals. Not that the need for such education has not been realised, but there seem to be two serious misgivings about imparting value education. First, value education is often equated with sectarian indoctrination-an anathema to a secular state like India. Secondly, there is this notion that values can not, and should not, be taught at all, these are picked up by youth from the environment in which they live, from the inspiration provided by the leaders, the role models. This paper analyses the reasons behind both these objections and shows how can values be taught in a scientific manner to modern rationally minded youth.

Technology is generally viewed as the tool for application of scientific knowledge to promote hum... more Technology is generally viewed as the tool for application of scientific knowledge to promote human welfare. Since the age-old problems of inequity, poverty, strife, crime and violence still stare in our face, there must be a grave inadequacy in our science and technology set up. Analysis reveals that the roots of this inadequacy lie in the fact that the youth, the future engineers and scientists, are being given an education that completely sidesteps the whole question of real human welfare, human values and goals. Clearly there is an urgent need to rectify the situation. Though most educationists appreciate the need for education in human values, there seem to be three serious misgivings about it.

Any attempt at evolving policies to address the global climate change and energy security issues ... more Any attempt at evolving policies to address the global climate change and energy security issues must take a holistic view of the various factors influencing them. These seven factors -Energy, Ecology, Economy, Employment, Equity, Entropy, Ethics-constitute a web with intricate interconnections. The paper gives a glimpse of these interconnections and indicates how lack of recognition of these interconnections has led, in the past, to suggestions -like reducing the specific fuel consumption of carswhich, have eventually proved to be counter productive. The paper also illustrates how an appreciation of these interconnections can suggest novel strategies to address these twin problems. The analysis presented in the paper brings out that the present crisis of energy, ecology, economy, (un)employment and (in) equity has its roots in a crisis of ethics and values, which in turn influence the technology choice.

Technology is not value neutral, as many people tend to believe, but carries with it the value sy... more Technology is not value neutral, as many people tend to believe, but carries with it the value system of its progenitors. In fact, the values act like a "sieve" which allows only those technologies to "pass through" and propagate which are in consonance with it. These values remain encoded in the technology in the form of its basic characteristics, akin to the "genetic-code". Thus, the modern technology, which has been evolved and nurtured in a crass materialistic world view, has fundamental traits like centralization, mass production through automation, planned obsolescence etc. all of which enable it to give high profits to the industrialists. It is quite natural that propagation of this technology has played a key role in spread of materialism and all its adjuncts like consumerism, inequity, corruption, strife, crime, violence etc. throughout the world. Gandhiji, visionary that he was, could foresee this fact about a century ago, much before the onset of these problems, and suggested the evolution of a humane technology. In this paper this relationship between technology and values is brought out in detail through numerous illustrations and suggestions are made for changes in technologies in tune with Gandhian vision which could help bring about a change in the worldview.

Insight meditation or Vipassanaa # , as it is popularly known today, is a powerful technique for ... more Insight meditation or Vipassanaa # , as it is popularly known today, is a powerful technique for purification of mind through self-observation. The unique feature of this meditation, as being taught in the present times by Shri S.N.Goenka and his assistants, is to train the mind to observe continually, without any reaction, the somatic sensations and the concomitant mental conditions. It is claimed that the roots of the impressions stored in the subconscious mind, lie in these somatic sensations. Though these sensations are occurring incessantly in human body-due to various bio-chemical and electromagnetic interactions-these remain below the threshold of awareness of most people, unless the mind is suitably trained. But the so called " subconscious/ unconscious" mind is constantly in "touch" with these and therefore governs our response to them. This response, based on our past conditionings, is that of craving for the pleasant sensations and aversion towards the unpleasant ones. Since these sensations are evanescent, and would naturally change, the reactive mind is always dissatisfied, full of what the Buddha, the discoverer of this technique of developing mindfulness, calls tanha (or trishna in Sanskrit)--craving for the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant. This tanha , or the desire to have it (and all things in life) otherwise, as one likes, is the root cause of perpetual dissatisfaction that characterizes the modern life. The practice of non-reactive observation of these sensations as taught in Vipassana enables us to "train" the mind to remain equanimous, in view of the fact of impermanence of everything in this sensory world. This reduces tanha and enables the practitioner to accept the present cheerfully, thus liberating him from the bondage arising from the reactions of an unwise mind.

In spite of so much advancement in science and technology, the society is still besieged with the... more In spite of so much advancement in science and technology, the society is still besieged with the age old problems of inequity, poverty, strife, crime and violence. Though superficially, these problems seem to be disparate, having their origin in the economic, the political and the social systems, their roots can be traced to the fact that the youth are being given an education that completely sidesteps the whole question of human values and goals. Not that the need for such education has not been realised, but there seem to be two serious misgivings about imparting value education. First, value education is often equated with sectarian indoctrination-an anathema to a secular state like India. Secondly, there is this notion that values can not, and should not, be taught at all, these are picked up by youth from the environment in which they live, from the inspiration provided by the leaders, the role models. This paper analyses the reasons behind both these objections and shows how can values be taught in a scientific manner to modern rationally minded youth.