People outside have the impression that we in India have little aptitude for research. This is so in Science as well as in Theology.
Some of our Scientists have done well— Sudarsan, Khorana, and others among the present generation; but they did most of their work in institutions abroad. The large bulk of our Scientists, however, have not been inventive, merely copying what has already been discovered or established abroad.
Why do Indians lag behind in research? Some people think that it is because we do not have enough resources to invest—neither money nor personnel. To a certain extent this is true. A recent UNESCO study has shown that 97.4% of the money spent by the world on fundamental Research and Development is used in the developed or rich countries and only 2.6% in the whole developing part of the world where 65% of the world’s population lives.
But in our country, Jawaharlal Nehru saw the need for fundamental research from the beginning, and our Government has in fact set up a number of institutions all over the country dedicated to research. Tribute must be paid also to Tatas for setting aside large sums for fundamental research.
Our achievement, however, remains rather minor, to date. Much of the Government money has been wasted on providing cushy, well-paid jobs without much responsibility to a few favoured scholars. There was no special incentive to do creative research in most of the Government institutions where the sledge-hammer of bureaucracy could always deal icy or crushing blows to any independent initiative.
Can we do better in a Church related institution? The present writer is not all that sanguine about our possibilities in research in religion and culture. It is with great diffidence that we have launched this project. No doubt the task will be up-hill for quite some time to come. Organizing a few master“s degree programmes in New Testament, Old Testament and Systematic Theology is certainly not the crux of the problem. It is research—to provide facilities for creative scholars to do independent research, with very little bureaucratic control. But this needs well-endowed libraries, proper facilities for study and research in society, adequate finances, and above all at least half a dozen creative scholar-thinkers.
We pay money for an enormous number of books written and produced abroad. This is one of the ways in which even theology becomes a means of exploitation. If western reviews rave about a western (or Indian) book, then we all pay money and buy it. These books do not deal with our situations, do not have their roots in our culture, and often contain the hidden strings by which the West keeps our minds enslaved.
It is here that we must break loose from our old fetters. The Senate of Serampore College is standing by us, because we are perhaps the only graduate theological faculty in India that is fully Indian in personnel. The challenge before us therefore is rather immense --to pioneer in a new path. The most important first task of our research programme in religion and culture (and not just in theology) would be simply to delineate the main
outline of that path.
It is important that the main churches of Kerala, with the exception of the largest of them, the Roman Catholic Church are cooperating in this venture from the beginning. We have individual Roman Catholic Scholars who promised support. As the F. F. R. R. C. develops and proves its quality, we can expect full cooperation from Roman Catholic institutions in Kerala also.
The important thing is——do we have the will to be creative and the desire to free our minds from its western shackles? I think we do. Time will show what the truth is.