A Life in Science: Yashpal

Duration: 42 minutes
Language: English
Format: Betacam/DVCAM
Direction, Script, Editing, & Graphics: Yousuf Saeed
Year of Production: 2004

This film, in the voice of Prof. Yashpal himself, traces his inspiring career in Astrophysics and Telecommunications, his philosophy of education, and an insight into the history of India's science and technology after independence. Roughly divided into four parts, the film deals with some of the following subjects:

Part I: The Universe Speaks
Professor Yashpal began his career in Cosmic Ray Physics in the 1940s, at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. He reminiscences the old times, his colleagues and the techniques they used in those days to detect the high-energy cosmic rays or particles coming from outer space. He moved on to America after doing his Ph.D., and worked at some of the world's largest nuclear accelerators there. He also came in contact with many great Physicists of the world including the Nobel-Laureate Prof. Abdussalam, who he interviews here in a TV programme, discussing various topics including the Standard Model of Fundamental Particles and the four Forces of Nature. According to Prof. Yashpal, the universe speaks to us through the high-energy particles coming from outer space, and we have to find out what it says.

Part II: A Road to Self-Reliance
Since Yashpal started his career in science at the time of India's independence, he was much inspired by the national leaders such as Nehru and Gandhi who spoke about progress, science, and India's sociological problems. Yashpal also witnessed the painful events of the partition as his family migrated from Lahore where he was born. Early Indian science and technology stressed on self-reliance since we had hardly anything being produced in India in the 1940s. We progressed a lot in space technology and nuclear sciences, where the know-how wasn't borrowed from outside, and hence we depended upon our own resources and skills. However, we still have not managed to marry the local talent and creativity with the advancements in science and technology. We have to weigh the progress and development of the country according to our local needs and situations rather than on the foreign models of progress.

Part III: The Remote and the Intimate
Vikram Sarabhai, the visionary of India's space programme, conceived the SITE experiment to test the sociological and technological implications of a direct TV and radio broadcast through the satellite in remote areas of India. This experiment, conducted between 1975 and 76, was managed by a talented team headed by Prof. Yashpal, at the Space Applications Centre, Ahmadabad, and produced tremendous results in the assessment of the situation. Prof. Yashpal recommended the use of the local transmitters (for the use of the local population) along with the larger satellite antennae, which could broadcast to and from the whole world. Yashpal discusses the social implications of the present onslaught of information and communication in the form of satellite TV, Internet and other media. Media in the hands of corporates and powerful governaments is being used to change people's minds - even to justify horrible wars. Prof. Yashpal also emphasizes on the localization of the media resources rather than being managed by some monolithic conglomerates of the world.

Part IV: Filling the Philosophical Voids
Prof. Yashpal has always had keen interest in education and the newer forms of learning. He stresses on the human contact and social interaction during education rather than a bookish education. Apart from the formal education imparted in the schools and universities in India, we also have countless informal institutions of education such as those of the crafts-persons, the musicians, skilled labourers and many others. Their skills also involve the knowledge about all those sciences, which for instance an engineer, doctor, or architect needs. We have to take away the burden from the shoulders of little children and give them the real joy of learning and understanding. Many of our scientists themselves may not have the scientific temper, since today we have a trend of specialization and super-specialization. Hence, there are only islands of knowledge and data with huge gaps in between. Super-specialists today are asked to make deadly, specialized bombs, without knowing what havoc these would bring. We need to fill those philosophical gaps if we need real progress.

The film's director, Yousuf Saeed, has been making documentary films since 1990, many of his films having been screened at national and international film festivals and academic venues. See a list of his films here.
The video CD of this film is available on request.