‘At temple of democracy,Mujumdar is a brilliant scientist,model secularist’

Education in India as in many parts of the world even today and in the west a century ago was criticised on many counts. It was said,for example,that it produces knowledge without wisdom,cleverness without conscience and thirst for power without any sense of social responsibility.

S B Mujumdar’s selfless mission in life has been to leave this world better for our youngsters than when he or I was born into it. He has tried to present to them a delicious and ennobling mix of India’s ancient esoteric spirituality with modern science and technology,its eternal beliefs and faith with today’s objective reason and logic.

The educational system at Symbiosis recognizes that India has been the victim of waves of invasions,pillage destruction and humiliation by barbarian invaders because of the weakness created by its cruel division in the shape of the caste system.

We have taken seriously the teaching of Dr. Ambedkar who told us that the caste system of India is like a four-storey building in which there are no staircases. It was Symbiosis abhorrence of the caste system that made the society establish in 1990 the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Museum and Memorial.

Mujumdar is a brilliant scientist. Botany and microbiology are his special fields of academic study. I am sure he believes Darwin’s ‘Theory of Evolution of Species’ Darwin’s teaching is a repudiation of the Biblical account of creation in the story of Adam and Eve accepted by Islam too. I suspect Mujumdar is at heart an agnostic though he has kept it a closely guarded secret. His sweet wife Sanjivani and charming daughters Vidya and Swati should know but they only tell me that he is a great husband and father. So he is.

No one has ever accused him of being a fanatic,fundamentalist or communal. To me he is a model secularist believing in the philosophy of the 25th Article of the Indian Constitution. Mujumdar has never objected when I have repeatedly argued in and outside the Symbiosis colleges that instead of fighting for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya we should establish a magnificent University of Secular Education at the site moving the temple and mosque at some convenient location near it. Hindus,Muslims and Christians must lovingly join in constructing all three. At present Symbiosis does teach genuine secularism. It is a great Temple of Indian Democracy.

The greatest tribute to Mujumdar is his monumental creation. In thirty years,thirty great colleges have come into being covering almost every worthwhile sector of humanities,science and technology. Each is acknowledged all over India and outside as a centre of excellence. Our teachers are the best the country can boast of. Our students proudly proclaim the Symbiosis brand and emblem.

Mujumdar’s seventy five years are an era of signal achievement. I hope and pray he scores a century.

(The writer is a noted lawyer)