BEHIND THE NEWS--
The Astrology Gap
A puzzling action explained
Many in the science world have decried the Indian Government's plan to
establish astrology
as a field of study and research in the nation's universities. Not us. The
Annals of Improbable Research believes it is a splendid idea. Below, we
explain why.
Here is the situation, as reported in the May 17, 2001 issue of Nature
magazine:
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has offered to fund fully fledged departments of astrology.... To be called Jyotir Vigyan ('astrological science' in Sanskrit), the departments are to be set up for the 2001–2002 Academic year. They will offer bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. The proposal is the brainchild of science minister Murli Manohar Joshi, who is also minister for education.
Some
see this as nonsensical.
We, however, choose to see it as a masterstroke -- an inexpensive, intricately
clever way to bolster India's national defense.
Here's how it will work.
Other nations have been tempted -- and in some cases are racing -- to build
extremely expensive, high-tech weaponry that no one knows how to make work.
Murli Manohar Joshi is taking an opposite,
psyche-em-out, approach to national defense.
A few years from now there will be an astrology Ph.D. gap. Indian astrology Ph.D.s, the world's finest and only, will be eagerly wooed by the defense establishments of every other nation on earth. Following the Indian astrologers' wise counsel, country after country will reallocate the resources they've been wasting on too-clever-by-half weaponry, and spend the money instead on developing their own astrology infrastructures.
In the meantime, every nation will have wasted huge amounts of money on
unworkable armaments -- every nation, that is, except India.
Bravo Murli Manohar Joshi. Bravo, India.
© Copyright 2001 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
This is a HotAIR exclusive feature item. For a list of other
HotAIR featured items, see What's New.