Let us create intellectual revolutions in developing countries

Let us create intellectual revolutions in developing countries

An all-original poem by Sujay Rao Mandavilli

 

Science has had a truly glorious past and a rich and a splendacious history,

With elevated accomplishments to reflect its exalted pedigree,

Its vast compass and reach has spanned social sciences and natural sciences such as biology,

And mathematics, chemistry and astronomy,

With many a pre-eminent godfather since the dawn of classical antiquity,

Ancient Egyptians and ancient Mesopotamians did contribute stellarly,

As did the ancient Greeks gloriously and spectacularly,  

As did ancient the Chinese and ancient Indians too remarkably,

Like Imhotep, Shi Shen, and Aryabhatta,

Anaxagoras, Anaximander and Varahamihira,

The Ancient Romans focused on practical engineering and architecture,

They also excelled in military technology and agriculture,

These were followed by the blighted and the much-maligned dark ages,

Whose people were sometimes erroneously depicted as barbarians and savages,

Though feudalism and suppression of learning were rampant,

As were attacks by barbarians and vandals,

This set the stage for the renaissance which was a magnificient reawakening,

It was quite literally a rebirth and a new beginning,

It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity,

It was characterized by an effort to surpass the achievements of classical antiquity,

Gutenberg with his printing press contributed greatly to the spread of awareness too,

And for the church’s dogma and persecution of intellectuals there remained very little room,

We had brilliant minds such as Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, and Nicolaus Copernicus,

And intellectually fecund souls such as Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Andreas Vesalius,

This epoch was succeeded by the Enlightenment in due and righteous turn,

And was marked by an emphasis of rationality and reason,

Science and empiricism,

Rationality and humanism,

It is characterized by the scientific revolution and the ideas of Galileo, Newton, and Boswell,

Burke, Butler, and Campbell,

It more of less ended at the time of the death off Immanuel Kant and the French revolution,

And roughly at the time of the dawn of the industrial revolution,

Which brought about rapid large-scale industrialization,

And many a mind-numbing and earth-shattering invention,

And heightened though uneven economic prosperity,

Colonialization crept in through the back door surreptitiously,

Following the age of exploration and the age of discovery,

Colonization had uneven benefits and was at best a mixed bag,

Coming as it did, with many objectionable strings attached,

Decolonialization ensued as it was inevitable and inescapable,

Though some of the events it brought about were wholly avoidable, 

It sometimes brought about wooly-headed socialism and egotistical dictatorships in its wake,

And the continuation of obsolete and western-centric economic development models that on innovation and creativity applied the brake,

There was no universally emphasized and applied impactful and sublime education,

And were adopted outdated pedagogical techniques,

Bereft of structural rearrangement and technology,

People still subscribe and succumb to many an assorted and discarded ideology,

Particularly in many an evolving nation and developing society,

Decolonization has been brought about in a political sense,

Though not in a truly intellectual sense and even in a spiritual and a metaphysical sense,

That must in the true ethereal sense and definition of the term come about,

If we are to stay afloat and progressively march afoot,

It has come in bits and pieces though,

And in gradual fits and starts,

Scientific revolutions must comprehensively come about,

Intellectual revolutions must wide-rangingly come about,

In the underdeveloped and underrepresented regions of the world,

Just as they did in the occident and the new world,

Social and other sciences must be comprehensively modernized,

With perspectives appropriately and broadly diversified,

And change must come here to permanently and in grand perpetuity stay,

People must tap and eat into the rich benefits of myriad and multitudinous intellectual gifts,

In a manner that bring about unprecedented and irreversible paradigm shifts,

Reexamining the role of religion, though acknowledging that man has a soul, 

And living in blissful harmony with nature with predetermined and adaptable many a long term environmental goal,

And people from all walks of life and all countries must have a say,  

And seamlessly and faultlessly all forms of knowledge share,

And must brightly and astutely chart the path of progress and deftly and dexterously make a way,

Into the rich and luxurious garden of triumphant victory,

Laid out in all in its resplendent munificence and magnificent and delicately interwoven tapestry,

That through willing, eager and enthusiastic collaboration benefits all of humanity,

Where the benefits of kaleidoscopic and multidimensional progress will be then for all to see,

It is only when that happens, will mankind be able to call itself mankind in every conceivable way,

And cultured, civilized and enlightened in true sense of the term,

And it will only be then will the lofty doors of progress open, and blissful prosperity will come here to permanently stay.