Read Original Article here on Science and Technology.

Contact Email address of Kini Yumnam: [email protected]

Recollecting the meaning and concept of science and technology:
I hope this reply to Kini would bridge the gap of my previous article, which I have omitted most of the important points due to limited space, time, effort and knowledge. I am also optimistic that the readers after reading this reply and my previous article entitled "Science & Technology in Manipur" will develop some conceptual ideas of what lies behind our past ancestral knowledge.

Previously, I gave the readers a chance to think by themselves and find out what lies beneath our forefather's knowledge. That's why I used the sentence "A deep and rational thinking would reveal many of this socio-economically challenging knowledge from our past ancestral practices" in the first paragraph itself. Wholly, I don't mean that our past knowledge was all acceptable, but what I mean was that we should go for "scientific investigation of these positive or negative practices and how it worked in such a long span"!
What is important here is not what we disagree on undeveloped or argued knowledge but what we generally agree on - the scientific consensus on concepts, problems, and solutions, which we can learn from the past practices.

Here I will suggest that if a reader were from a non-scientific background then the article would be a jumbled and mumbled stuff. But a person who is keen on this topic can learn through the books that I am recommending at the end of this reply. Imaginative thoughts are much to achieve the goal in term of science and technology.

The definition of science and technology should be known clearly and some subjects and terminology like, sustainable development, conservation, political science, environmental management, environmental economics, cost benefit analysis, socio-economy, resources, environmental impact assessment, multidisciplinary subjects etc. are very important to understand for these type of study.

A simple definition of science and technology is given by G. Tyler Miller, Jr. (1994) as, "Science is an attempt to discover order in nature and then use that knowledge to make predictions about what will happen in nature. In this search for order scientists try to answer two basic questions:
(1) What events happen in nature over and over with the same results? and
(2) How or why do things happen this way?
The definition on technology is given as, "the creation of new products and processes that are supposed to improve our chances for survival, our comfort level, and our quality of life". In many case technology develops from known scientific laws and theories. Some technologies arose long before anyone understood the underlying scientific principles e.g. aspirin extracted from bark of a willow tree.

Science is one way of looking at the world. The way of viewing the world gives us a different way of perceiving and of making sense of our world, and each is valuable to us. Science is a search for understanding of the natural world, whereas technology is the control of the natural world for benefit of humans. Science often leads to technological developments, just as new technologies lead to scientific discoveries. Telescopes begin as technological device, but Galileo used it to study the heavens, it became a source of new scientific knowledge. Most of us do not come in direct contact with science in our daily lives; instead, we come in contact with the products of science- technological devices such as shields (Chungoi in Manipuri), Pena (indigenous musical instrument of Manipur) and umbrella (Pe in Manipuri).

Thus there is a tendency for people to confuse the products of science with science itself. We should also remember that developing modern instruments/equipment, nuclear bombs, spacecraft, aeroplanes, cars etc are not the only science, traditional methods and concepts are also regarded as the basis of sciences, for example the logic of research in physics is not the same as in biology.

In the second last paragraph, I wrote as, "in this 21st century S&T has penetrated in almost the entire sphere, such as religion, culture, socio-economy, crimes, politics, sports, tourisms etc". In this, one should accept that leaving aside all these factors, the best example is "the science and religion", which most of the people thought to be of different subjects. But that is not true, science has already synthesis with the religion. "The Second World Congress for the Synthesis of Science and Religion", was held at the Science City Auditorium, Kolakata, during January 9-12, 1997, sponsored by the Bhakti Vedanta Institute, San Francisco, USA. In this congress eminent religious leaders and scientist, Nobel laureates were present, among them was the Nobel laureates Prof. Charles Townes, who strongly suggest the world communities to bring science and religion together. Since this congress, people have started research on science and religion. I myself volunteered in this congress. I will be glad to provide the copies of the proceeding of this congress to those who desire to read it. Thus when science has penetrated into the core of religion than what more is left that science doesn't penetrated?

In response to Kini's comments, I am giving the answer one by one as follows:

Kini Yumnam: A simple friendly criticism on S&T by Khwairakpam Gajananda. Very nice and very interesting article on S&T in Manipur!
Gaja Answer: Dear Kini, thank you very much for reading the article so thoroughly. I sometime thought that even myself would not have read that much time. I am happy that you have given a friendly criticism, but I would be happier if you put it as constructive criticism so that other people could also share your knowledge. I am so surprised that you do not find fault on the main focus of the article -- improvement of indigenous knowledge and know-how practices by our ancestors through deep and rational thinking. I am flattered with your words of appreciation.

Kini Yumnam: Author put a left double quotation mark, but he missed to put the right quotation mark. I was thinking and searching which part of his article is a quotation. I couldn't find the reason why the author puts left quotation in his writing. Was it necessary? I also got confused about the phrase "since it gets its independence" in the first sentence. Whether it is the independence of science and technology or the independence of Manipur. From the context, it seems to refer to the independence of science and technology, I am not sure if I am wrong.
Gaja Answer: Editing mistake. It is not a quotation. No. No man is perfect; so minor mistakes always arise. Spelling, grammatical, punctuation mistakes are always there. It is not proper to stress the comment in such type of minor mistake, when the referee himself/herself committed lots mistakes. Ethically it is wrong.

We generally speak about independence for individual, state or nations. Thus, the 'independence' that I referred in the article is the independence of Manipur (August 13, 1947) and not science and technology. To make the sentence short, I follow the general pattern. Such kind of complex sentence is known by all, except a child or an innocently thinking man, it should not be taught, for those who takes is call a fool.

Kini Yumnam: I don't want to accept it as true. Yes, we might have some good knowledge on some fields but they were not scientific. But all knowledge are not scientific. We don't have our own word to mean science, nor did we have any scientific institution before 19th century, so how could we have noticiable scientific and technological innovation, that too from time immemorial?
Gaja Answer: It is true and you should accept it. What do you mean by scientific? You know all knowledge can be made scientific after through understanding of the processes and principles. Please see the definition of science and technology given above.

In Manipur, our ancestors crossbred to develop new strains of livestock and crops long before biologists understood the principles of genetics. This practice is what we called today as "Chara Louba". Agricultural practices were started during the period of 'Pakhangba' (4 AD), we can say it was the dawn of 'science and technology' in Manipur, because for agriculture, technology is much. For defence, invention of 'Arambai' (a weapon similar to a small missile) is our pride. Handloom and handicrafts needs technology to develop, our ancestor had invented the technology and we inherit that knowledge today.

How come our unscientific forefathers knew that 'Kekru' could be used in 'smelting gold' or used as 'moisturiser' like 'Heibi' and also as 'organic detergent'. Discovery of herbal shampoo 'Chenghi' by mixing various ingredients, which even today our female section of the society, appreciate to used it, is our forefathers achievement. Can't we put 'Chenghi' into large scale and commercialised it? 'Shangbrei' can also be a good 'deodorant'. Our indigenous game 'Polo' had been made scientific now. If I think more, than hundreds of such types of knowledge will come out and I can again get another Ph.D. degree out of that!

"Necessity is the mother of invention"; our forefathers had everything for survival, plenty of food, natural resources, water etc. so they develop only those things, which they required. Should we blame them or ourselves? It is our responsibility to look for and make such kind of knowledge to become scientific now, right?

Science is a new term, and only institution or laboratory does not produce good science and technology. Are you aware that people who had no knowledge of chemistry invented 'Photography'? Sir Isaac Newton discovered his gravitational laws while sitting under an apple tree; Gregor Mendel's study on hybrid peas was at the garden of a monastery all take e.g. of Madam Curie. The above examples of Manipur were of time immemorial, hope you are convinced. For more information and examples please read more books and make up mental conceptual ideas.

Kini Yumnam: Our traditional medical practioners were maiba and maibis, their way of treatment based on "chaban thaba and mantra jantra" can't be taken as scientific one. Even if they have some knowledge of meidcianl herbs, their way of making medicines were all unscientific. We have our knowledge of making houses but that is now shun by people because of its being unscientic and today we could hardly find any house in traditional sangaiyumsa style. Now let's come to the agriculture knowledge we had. We didn't know tiling using furrow. We knew only digging as a means for cultivation, which is very prevalent still in senapati and other hill areas.
Gaja Answer: 'Maiba and maibis' were the pioneers of the modern medical science. In all the countries of the world there is always some types of ancient medical practitioners, they may be witches or tantrik but they always help in the development of the modern medicine. It would be wrong that our 'maiba and maibis used only the chaban thaba and mantra jantra', they also used some very effective medicinal plants e.g. lamangkha, nongmangkha, peruk etc. We should discard all the points which are useless and unnecessary, but should absorb only those things that are beneficial to us, this is what we called as scientific understanding. We knew that the ways of making medicine by our ancestor are very primitive, but is not it our duty to make it into a scientific one in our time, this is my view on this article.

Sangaiyumsha has been dominated by modern concrete building, these is what I termed as cultural shift. I don't agree with your statement that this architectural style has been rejected totally today, don't you see the architectural style of our modern airport at Tulihal, also see how the Govinda temple at Sangai Prou designed by the ISCKON. Do you have any prove to state that sangaiyumsa is not scientific? I am giving you the answer in your next question.

Now I realised that you are not from scientific background. Do you think that ploughing using furrow is sustainable? My answer is simply no. There are different types of agricultural techniques such as No-Till agriculture, contour ploughing/tillage, fall ploughing, strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation etc. Which one is the most sustainable? The answer is 'No-Till agriculture' also refer to as conservation tillage, is the most sustainable form of agriculture. In no-tillage the agricultural land is left unplowed most years. The only labour in this is managing the weed (in Manipuri we called it as Loupengba).

Our forefathers performed these practices, and it greatly reduced soil loss, as well as energy, financial cost, water retention capacity and effort put in the agriculture. In 1990 U.S. Department of agriculture (USDA) study maize production in United States found no real difference in levels of crop yield between conventional and conservational tillage systems. Are you aware that slash-and-burn and shifting cultivation is sustainable if only small plots of the forest is cleared, cultivated for no more than 5 years, and then allowed to lie fallow for 10-30 years to renew soil fertility! This practice is what exactly our tribal ancestor performed, but due to over population more and more shifting cultivation started and thus the environmental problem arises. Here it is our responsibility to make is sustainable.

Digging is done in place where the land availability is scarce and small. In Senapati and other hills, digging is performed to plant horticultural products, which we can say as kitchen gardening types of farming. Never think it to be of large scale, if you, then you will be wrong.

Kini Yumnam: The simple proof of this is, the word langol used in the cultivation is not a meitei word and the words used in drving cows while tiling are all not meitei words. In terms of food items, we have knowledge of making soijins, Hawaichars, ngaris etc. But are process of making them scientific, probably not. The author mentioned about the water, soil, forest and energy conservation. But I never heard of any historical water reservoir used by our ancient people. What I have heard is that the word pukhri and Guha we used to conserve water is bengali or assamese words. But they are not acceptable as a scientific way of water conservation today. And what about soil conservation, forest conservation? The two terms are somewhat interrelated.

When there were plenty of forests in our ancestor's time, who would have taken the plan to conserve forest? I heard from our forefathers that all their surrounding were covered with jungles, they painstakingly cleared those jungles to make cultivable lands and passable ways.
Gaja Answer: If 'langol' is not meitei word than so what? It could be other Manipuri's (Naga or Kuki) word. If it is from Manipur then it is our concept. You might have heard farmers calling cows by mentioning the words 'Chee chee' e.g. a farmer called his 'Manggebi' (grey coloured cow) as "Manggebi Chee Chee". You know the meaning of 'Chee", ask any of your Kuki friend and he/she will say it as 'Common salt'. Herbivore prefers common salt very much, so to attract them, the word 'Chee' was used. Can we say that it is not Manipuri word?

Please study the nutritional values, ingredients and preservation techniques of soijin, Hawaichars, ngaris etc. and from next day onward you'll forget meat or vegetables and ask for the menu of 'Hawaichar Chagem'. One important seed you missed is the 'Yongchak'; study the protein value of it and you'll acclaimed "Oh! It is science". Food processing and preservation is the techniques of science. Learn more on this.

Pukhri and guha may be bengali or assamese, but what about the other water conservation terms of Manipur such as Nashikhong touba, Khongbal touba, Panthingba, Eshitpa, Loukhong touba etc. Isn't it Manipuri terms? And are not these practices used for agricultural practices? If it is used then it is scientific.

Dear Kini, what is the scientific term of water conservation? Our ancestor used bamboo shoots as pipe to bring water from the sources to the destination, see Down to Earth Magazine and you will be happy that our forefathers are really great!

Scientist generally says soil conservation and forest management (not forest conservation, although it is not wrong to say forest conservation). These two are of different fields, but are closely inter-linked; thus sometime we thought it to be of one. You can take up the study in any one of these two subjects. In soil conservation, it involves reducing soil erosion, preventing depletion of soil nutrients, and restoring nutrients already lost by erosion, leaching, and over cropping. Most methods used to control soil erosion involve keeping the soil covered with vegetation. This is where you get confused.

Yes, forest retard soil loss and erosion, especially in areas of high rainfall, high rates of tectonic uplift, and soft bedrocks e.g. Northeast India. But it is not forest alone that conserve soil erosion, you can find many more examples if you search for it.

Since time immemorial and also even today, our tribal landlord or Kings plan to conserve our forest resources. Ask you elders, whether they can cut any tree from a forest run by a tribal community without the permission of the landlord? Please think more and the answers will come automatically.

Yes, it is true that our forefathers were surrounded with jungles; they painstakingly cleared those jungles to make cultivable lands and passable ways. That is their means for survival without exploiting the forest resources. Now, for your survival you can do anything, but you should not compromising with the ability of the future generation to meet their own need. This is what we termed as 'Sustainable development'. As our forefathers were well aware about the future of their children, they left behind some forest resources for us and that is what we are utilising today. We should appreciate their scientific thinking and for not making Manipur a desert, like other communities of the world who totally cleared the forest and make the areas desert e.g. Egypt.

Kini Yumnam: And what about energy conservation? I wonder, would the term 'energy' be known to our grandpa? The author's title is about the science and technology in Manipur, but his article itself seems to fail to be scientific. He jumbled and mumbled altogather that sometimes it appears to be an article on social problem. Political turmoils, cultural shifts, economic cruches, etc are, I suppose, not the relevent terms to be brought in this article. He have suggested researches in various fields. I wonder whether researches on socio-economy trends, commercializtion of handloom and handicrafts, etc also fall on science and technology category.
Gaja Answer: Yes your grandpa knew the term and concept of energy conservation more than you did. Do you know why almost all the houses in Manipur faced towards East? The simple answer is to conserve maximum solar energy during morning hour. This is a proven scientific fact.

Please recollect the definition of science and you'll feel that the article is full of scientific information. It seems like you have copied the comments of some referee on certain scientific paper and by manipulating it, you put it as a comment for this article. Here you should remember that this is a scientific article and not a scientific paper for journal/magazine etc., which are mainly based on data.

About jumbled and mumbled, I have given the answer in the third paragraph of 'Recollecting the meaning and concept of science and technology'.

Kindly, first of all have a clear concept of multidisciplinary and holistic view of science. After that you will find a lots of implications of these words such as political turmoils, cultural shifts, economic crunches, etc. Do you ever carry out any scientific project? If you don't then it will be difficult for you to realise the used of these words.

About socio-economy trends, commercialisation of handloom and handicrafts, etc. please take helps or discuss with any of your friends from scientific background or read Environmental economics, cost benefit analysis, environmental laws , ISO 9000 and 14000 series and the recommended books at the end of this session.

To make you more understand I am giving you a definition on the environmental impact assessment here, hope you interpolate it and find the answer with this definition. "Environmental Impact Assessment is the systematic identification and evaluation of the various plan, policy, program, project or the legislative action upon the physical, chemical, biological, cultural or the socio-economic component of the environment". Here each words has its own meaning and definition, so learn to find it out by yourself without taking others help and you will find that it is the key aspect for the development of science and technology.

Kini Yumnam: The authors seems to be interested in the scientific and technological developement in our state. For that he mentioned everything possible, from policitian to cultural shifts, but he missed out one factor that is the insurgency. He never mentioned about the hindrance caused by insurgency factor in bringing the science and technological developement our reason. I don't know whether his was out of fear or out of oblivion.
Gaja Answer: The word insurgency is included in political turmoil/chaos political problems/instability etc. I am surprised why you do not ask me to put other words on social-political problems such as drug addicts, dacoity, rape, black marketing, terrorist etc. all these are also a major factor for the declining of science and technology. I don't know why you are so particular about insurgency.

As has been mentioned above, I tried to reduce the maximum amount of words and while making the article precise I omitted most of these words, which are represented by simple words e.g. political turmoil. It is not due to fear or oblivion, but I intentionally reject the word, to show maturity in writing a scientific article. If needed, I can put it. Keeping in view of limitedness I just try to make people aware of what could be done for Manipur with the prevailing resources in the state. I hope it is the duty for the researcher to find out these challenges by 'deep and rational thinking', which I had put forward in the first paragraph.

Kini Yumnam: The expectation of the author in the conclusion is not bad. But the question is, "would the simple introduction of standard multi-disciplinary science and technology books without competent teachers be helpful to the science and technological developement of Manipur?".
Gaja Answer: While talking multi-disciplinary subject (not science and technology) we should remember that it must be the holistic approaches for the study of a subject; otherwise it would mislead a person. Your account on the incompetent teachers in Manipur to teach multi-disciplinary subjects is wrong. The existing teachers can be made trained through various teachers training programs. I also don't think that all the teachers in Manipur are incompetent.

You know books are knowledge banks, so once it had been introduced in the curriculum it would take some time to grabs it but with time it will surely give some positive impact. As I had mention in the paragraph seven, third sentence of the S & T article, it always take time to carry out a good task, so if we start today then tomorrow or children will become more knowledgeable than us.

Do I mention the word OPTIMISTIC at the last sentence of the article?

Some recommended books:

1. Tyler Miller G Jr.: 1994, "Living in the Environment", International Thomson Publishing (Wadsworth biology series).
2. Botkin Daniel and Keller Edward: 1996, 'Environmental Science: Earth as a living planet', John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Publication, New York.
3. Goudie Andrew: 1984, 'The Nature of the Environment', Basil Blackwell Publisher Limited, Oxford, England.
4. 'Numit Kappa'
5. Hudson T. C.: 'The Meiteis'
6. 'Bio-diversity of the Northeast India' a catalogue on the biological resources of India': G. B. Pant Institute, Ministry of Environment and forest Govt. of India.
7. Also read all the articles at www.e-pao.net

Readers are also requested to send any queries or comments to the Email: [email protected] as CC for quick response.