Having had a brilliant academic record with first class all throughout his career, beginning from the Alanahat High School to the Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, Dr Sashikanta Acharya graduated as a top class engineer from the University Engineering College now known as VSS Technical University College, Burla. He then studied at the Roorkee Technical University and obtained first class in Master of Engineering Degree in 1963. He earned PhD from the prestigious Technical University of Berlin. He then staged a homecoming throwing allurements in order to serve his country and began his career as a faculty in Mechanical Engineering at the REC, Rourkela now known as NIT. In 1983, he joined as Professor and HOD at Mechanical Engineering Department of REC, Silchar Assam. He had been a visiting professor to Siegen and Technical University of Hamburg, both in Germany. He has published many research articles of much value both in national and international journals. After his superannuation, Dr Acharya is proactive in the fields of students’ welfare, slum development, empowerment of poor and women and spread of science education. He believes that prevalence of scientific temper and the spirit of scientific inquiry is an essential requisite for building an emancipated and egalitarian social order indispensable for a civilised India. An author of many progressive books, tracts and monographs, Dr Acharya has been spearheading a scientific movement in Odisha through his analytical writings in his journal Baigyanika Manobhaba. In an interview to The Pioneer, he spoke to Sugyan Choudhury on the importance of scientific ideas and vibes as sine qua non for a progressive society.
How and when did you accept scientific attitude in your careerIJ
I have no hesitation in telling you my real experiences that made me to accept a scientific attitude conclusively in my career. I was born in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family Once, I was severely rebuked by my father for playing with a so-called untouchable Harijan boy in my bedroom. I was asked to take my bath and put on new dresses. The entire bedroom was washed. When I grew up, I reflected on the incident and arrived at a conclusion that it was all superstition without any scientific reason behind it. I was asked to perform Ravinarayan Puja (offering obeisance to Sun God), at my home. A milkman couple invited me to hold Ravinarayan Puja for a month in their courtyard. I obliged them. They were told by a pundit that they would get a son if they would offer puja to the Sun God by a Brahmin. The woman conceived, but a girl was born. I was misunderstood in and around the village for no fault of mine. In my college days, I knew that during fertilisation y- chromosome of male has to unite with x- chromosome of female so that a son could be conceived. When I knew the real truth, I became comfortable and could understand that by performing puja nothing can be achieved. The last incident was the visit of the Jagannath Temple at Puri. When I was returning from the temple with my mother, I saw many mutilated limbs of lepers and wondered why lord Jagannath was not curing those patients. All these things and many more things convinced me that Brahmins were cheating gullible persons. This made me a rationalist. I began to embrace scientific inquiry to things around me that made it possible for me to achieve what I am today.
How were you influenced in BerlinIJ
In Berlin, I observed people of Germany are more prosperous than Indians. A woman sweeper, who was coming every morning to clean my room, asked me about Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, etc. I wondered how she could ask such questions. I inquired from my Indian friends there and came to known that they had compulsory education; as a result, she was educated. Further, a large number of training institutions were available there where people get vocational training on different trades. Even a barber cannot open a saloon without a training certificate. To spread primary education in our country, I started an organiation named Shiksha Prasar Samity at Berlin. A large number of poor children were helped through that organisation.
What more social works have you done to substantiate your standIJ
Besides my teaching and research activities, I was involved in social works in Rourkela. I realised that proper education can be given to children if scope is given to learn through their mother language. To prove it, I started an Odia medium nursery called Pragati Vidya Mandir at the REC campus with the help of campus women. This school is now shifted to Jagda and has become a reputed High School. To educate people on bad effects of intoxicants, I started publishing pamphlets, booklets and conducted seminars, conferences, meetings, padayatras and district-level committees. I took voluntary retirement in 1993 and stayed at Rourkela and worked in the Service to Humanity Foundation which I established in 1980. I went to umpteen High Schools to motivate students to read science and develop scientific temper. Through my experiences, I have come to a conclusion that no country can be truly prosperous and peaceful unless scientific temper is developed in the minds of the people. For this, schoolteachers have to play a vital role because they influence the students’ minds in the early age. Realising all this, I have now established The Centre for Development of Scientific Temper Charitable Trust at Rourkela. I am editing an Odia magazine named Baigyanik Manobhaba which will help educate the general mass.
Is technical education adequate to make a complete manIJ
No. When I was studying engineering, there was no subject like humanities. Towards the middle of 1960 humanities departments were established in technical universities and colleges. During my 50 years of teaching life in engineering, I have observed that engineers are becoming more and more inhuman. Similarly, technocrats in other fields like medical and applied sciences are becoming more corrupt day by day. The condition in private engineering colleges has become worst. The teachers in these colleges are directly or directly compelled by the management to supply copy in examination hall. Hence, introduction of subjects of humanisms is not going to help technocrats. The character building of students should start from childhood. All teachers from the primary education to higher education levels should play a role model by removing superstition from the minds of students and inculcating scientific temper along with ethical values in them.