Professor Yash Pal, missionary of clarity

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that under Professor Yash Pal’s chairmanship from 1986 to 1991, the UGC prepared the ground for a more science-driven India. Sowing the seeds of Digital India 1.0 — which saw computerisation and jumps in telecommunication technology — was the UGC’s ‘Countrywide Classroom’, one of the biggest, most successful experiments in mass com.

Yash Pal made India realise two things about science: one, that it could be fascinating even when unfurled by sources closer home than Carl Sagan and other Western evangelists of science on TV. Two, that science was about understanding the world around us, the opposite of rote learning. The former Tata Institute of Fundamental Research scientist would explain physical laws — in his calm voice on Doordarshan and ‘expert spots’ in Turning Point, the science TV show hosted by Girish Karnad — as if they were Panchatantra tales. And, yet, Yash Pal never came across as a peddler of hokum-as-science.

Wave-particle duality, Fraunhofer lines and radioactive decay were not hitched on to anything mystical, ‘ancient’ or Indian. They were part of the physical world. Understanding this had its own appeal, Yash Pal insisted. The professor ceased to exist on Tuesday. His missionary zeal for science should be remembered. Especially in these unbelievable times.