WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT OUR PARASITOLOGISTS

If I ask my young Parasitologists about a short life-sketch and contributions of our eminent Indian Parasitologists like Drs GD Bhalerao, HN Ray, HR Mehra, Babbar Mirza ,HD Srivastava ,AB Chaudhary, GD Thappar,  MAN Rao, AK Verma , BP Pande, VS Alwar, SC Dutt ,BS Gill  etc , it is very unlikely that many of them may tell about these scientists-even their affiliations and contributions . They might have come across these names and their important work while referring a Parasitology book but beyond that, there is a lot to know about these legends of Indian Parasitology which is unknown to most of our young Parasitologists.

In my opinion, it is more important to know their struggle for advancement of science in that odd period with limited facilities  and their planning of research by which most of their research findings are still hold true and have paved the way for further advancing the subject.

If you ever have a chance to peep into their life, you will notice that each of them have devoted their whole life for a single cause which was dear to them- this might be preparing a checklist of the parasites for ruminants or domestic animals , finding pathogenicity of a particular parasite ,or intermediate host of an important parasite or studying details of Indian schistosomes, or taking up matter of  appointing teachers in medical/ veterinary colleges with specialization in particular subject or writing a monograph to fill up the gap of knowledge . Still we do not know details about them? Who is responsible for such neglect ?

One reason, to me, appears the apathy of our institutes where these scientists devoted their whole life for achieving scientific goals and advancing science in India. These institutes do not recognize contributions of their own scientists- evidence of my allegation erupts by vetting their websites ( pl see my post of 15^th August,2013- websites of our premier institutes on my blog www.indianparasitologists.blogspot.com)  which lack even their name , if retired from the institute , leave aside their contributions. Even if you look to the awards or milestones of an institute, they are mentioned without name of the scientist who took all the pains to achieve these milestones. Even, website of our ICAR does not reveal name of national award winners, summary of research schemes for which a lot of public money has been spent etc .

 In contrast, it’s amazing to log in the website of London School of hygiene and Tropical Medicine where you will find not only contributions of present and past faculty members but all the details including diaries which were written during conducting particular research by the eminent scientists .

 To some extend our Indian  Societies of Parasitology are also responsible for this neglect. These societies have instituted many awards in the name of eminent Parasitologists like Dr BP Pande , VS Alwar, BN Singh, SC Dutt and each year competing Parasitologists are bestowed with these and other awards. But if you log in the website of these Societies you will not find any details of those Parasitologists on whose name the scientist is receiving these awards. Thus , even after receiving the award in the name of a  particular Parasitologist, the recipient is unaware about importance of the particular scientist in advancing Parasitology in India. Then how our contemporary Parasitologists will know  our past legends ?

And what is the way to know  personal struggles , sorrow , happiness ,felt  during achievements by these scientists ? Certainly, these are their family members who can throw light on these issues else there is no way to know personal  details of our past Parasitologists though , with some efforts, it is possible to prepare list of their research papers with summary of important papers .

I have tried to write more details about Dr VS Alwar  ,for which Indian Veterinary Journal very kindly provided his obituary which I added along with my personal experiences  on my blog . However, I have failed to add  more about this scientist and failed to receive  details from any other source . Again , on each year, Madras Veterinary College is arranging Dr VS Alwar lectures but these are not visible any where ?  Will it be possible to  search these lectures , after lapse of some years ?

Recently Dr B S Gill has expired and we do not have even his obituary ,published by any Parasitology journal (except a few lines by Journal of Veterinary Parasitology) hence it will be difficult for future generation to know more about Dr Gill.

In 1970, a Commemoration volume on Dr H D Srivastava  was published by IVRI, Izatnagar  , that contained research papers by national and international scientists. However, I am not aware , if this volume contained personal memories of Dr Srivastava and his contemporary fellows. It is also difficult to find this volume in most of Indian Research Institutes .

I am pleased to mention that comparatively we have been able to gather more information about Dr SC Dutt who ,in 1964-65, along with Dr HD Srivastava was awarded ICAR Rafi Ahmed Kiddwai award for their research in animal sciences- this happened first in animal sciences as prior to that the award was given only in Agriculture sciences. The importance of scientific contributions of Dr SC Dutt became more glaring by the fact and even “After fifty years of Research” his findings still holds true.

We have been able to publish a book “ Remembering Dr SC Dutt : The Parasitologist” in Nov  2002 which provides details (Part A) about Dr Dutt, as expressed by his contemporaries, students, family members, his research publications with summary of research papers on schistosomes ;  Part B possesses five Dr SC Dutt memorial lectures  ,delivered till that time, while Part C contains five articles reflecting present problems in Parasitology.

Publication of this book became possible by the efforts of many contemporary personalities  but particularly by Shri Shekhar Dutt, the eldest son of Dr SC Dutt.  Now, we are trying to convert the book into an e-book so that it will be available to our future generations .

However, to me, this appears a rare example where we have so much details about an eminent Parasitologist- Dr SC Dutt . This is high time that we should pay attention on this aspect and start gathering information of our past eminent Parasitologists from all sources else it will be too late with no way out to extract correct information from past events.

Though  our VCI has directed that students should be taught history of the subject , sadly it has not come forward to illustrate how this past history may be generated  and stored. 

And this story does not end on Parasitology but perhaps all the science subjects have the same story to repeat.