A hope and a warning

Lahore, Thursday, December 4, 1924

TO us in Punjab, the address delivered by Sir JC Bose at the Patna University convocation, salient extracts from which will be seen elsewhere in this issue, is of peculiar importance, not only on account of his eminent position in the world of thought and science, but also because our own university has invited this distinguished Indian savant to deliver the convocation address. The intrinsic value of the address, however, was far greater than the importance it derived from either of these circumstances. In addition to an illuminating discourse on the responsiveness of inorganic matter and the world of plants, it contained a message of hope to all those, whether educationists or patriots, who are so apt to despair of progress because of the difficulties that have to be encountered and overcome, and a warning to those others who, in their indifference and listlessness, take no heed of the danger that lies ahead. The first is all the more important because it is not an abstract or academic discourse on the superiority of optimism over pessimism and cynicism, of the man who accepts, confronts and overcomes his difficulties over the man who only complains and gives way to despondency. It is essentially a revelation of Sir Bose’s personal experience, the battle he has fought and the success he has won. When he commenced his investigations more than 30 years ago, he told his hearers, the circumstances were most discouraging. In the first place, no one believed that any great contribution to exact knowledge could be made in India since the Indian temperament was supposed to be merely speculative.