ICMR National Institute of Traditional Medicine (NITM) has launched “Kshitij: looking beyond the horizon”, a lecture series by resource persons from various walks of life, in Belagavi.
Belagavi-based polymath Nitin Khot delivered the inaugural address titled “The Descent of Man, Revisited” on Thursday.
The talk was focused on evolutionary biology, contribution of various scientists to the study of anthropology and the dangers faced by the present generation.
ICMR NITM director Subarna Roy said that the series has been planned with the aim of strengthening connections between the institution and scholars from various fields, as well as to help research stemming from ICMR to be interdisciplinary and grounded in the diversity of knowledge.
He said that the talks will be conducted at least once a month.
Addressing young scientists and trainees at the institute, Dr. Khot recommended reading of books by Charles Darwin, Yuval Noah Harari and Thomas Maynard Keynes.
“The prime question before an evolutionary biologist is, How did one species of homo sapiens come to dominate the other 8.7 million species in the world, over the years? Some of the answers are brain size, the ability to think, reason and reflect, to ask questions, to enjoy and appreciate art and beauty. However, Prof. Harari argues that the ability to communicate has made man unique. It seems settled now that the skill sets of communication through language and gestures, social cooperation, the gluten that binds us and imagination and the ability to convey it have made us different,” Dr. Khot said.
He argued, however, that gossip, spread of false news using new technological tools, propaganda and deliberate efforts at creating mistrust are posing problems. “After millions of years of living with that gift, however, we may now be facing the worst danger to mankind due to problems created by misuse of this ability,” he said.
“The evolution of the scientific methodology is possible because of the human desire to know our origin, our place in the universe and our future. However, earlier attempts at answering the question of where did we come from? have been made through creation of myths. Myths can be religious like faith, emotional like nationhood, economic like currency or legal like corporate entities,” he said.
“These myths over time got elaborate and intricate with many variations and got turned into the religion of the tribes. These stories have an anthropocentric view. The tribes believe that man is created in the image of God; they are the centre of the world and they are special, better than the other species. Nicolas Copernicus published his work only six days before his death in 1543 CE which theorised that it is not the Earth, but the Sun that is in the centre. The second line of defence of the believers is that man is special which again turned out to be wrong, as proved by Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin said that there are 193 species of monkeys, the least hairy of them is called the homo sapien,” he said.
“The Church objected to Charles Darwin’s heliocentric theory and his theory of the origin of species through natural selection. He published his book after a 40,000-mile-long journey to South America and 23 years of research. The book changed the world in such a way that the story of genesis needed to be abandoned. And, with the work of others like Sigmund Freud, it slowly became clear that man is not special, not the centre of the universe, and not always rational, with the help of the sciences,” he said.
“Now, the blind devotion to technology has led to wrong choices by people creating problems like nuclear war, climate change and genocide,” he said. “Quiet reflection and introspection that make us evolve into an economically sustainable, inclusive society that remains responsible and accountable, may be some of the solutions to the present crisis,” he said.
