The Birth and Goals of the People Science Movement

In post-independence India, science was largely confined to universities and government laboratories – far removed from the daily realities of farmers, rural women, and working-class communities. Superstitions shaped health decisions, outdated practices limited agricultural output, and the gap between scientific knowledge and the general public kept widening. It was out of this stark disconnect that the People Science Movement (PSM) was born – not as an academic exercise, but as a grassroots push to put science in the hands of the people who needed it most.

The historical context that gave birth to the PSM 🔗

To understand why the People Science Movement emerged, it helps to look at the conditions in India during the mid-20th century. When the movement began, nearly 87.8% of India’s population was illiterate, let alone familiar with modern scientific concepts. Science and Technology (S&T) had the potential to transform lives – in agriculture, healthcare, and education – but that potential was locked away in elite institutions, inaccessible to ordinary citizens.

There was a growing concern among scientists and social scientists that scientific research in India was conducted primarily by and for an elite group, with little purpose or practical application for the wider sections of society. This elite monopoly over science sparked disillusionment among younger intellectuals, who felt that the government’s approach to poverty and unemployment was deeply inadequate. The impetus for science-based social activism came not from a desire to merely disseminate information, but largely from this disillusionment with official thinking on alleviating mass poverty and the degradation of human conditions.

This convergence of unmet social need and intellectual frustration laid the ideological ground for what would become the People Science Movement.

Origins: tracing the roots of the PSM 🔗

The origin of the PSM in India can be traced to the early 1950s, when a number of organisations began engaging in activities aimed at creating scientific awareness among the general public. Among the most prominent early groups were the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP), the Marathi Vigyan Parishad, the Assam Science Society, and the Banga Vigyan Parishad. These organisations took a simple but powerful first step: they began disseminating information about science and technology by publishing literature in various Indian languages.

The KSSP, founded in Kerala in 1960, operated under the rallying slogan “Science for Social Revolution” – a formulation that positioned science not as an abstract pursuit, but as a vehicle for challenging the status quo. The use of the word “science” in that slogan was deliberate: it meant relying on factual evidence and rational inquiry rather than faith or superstition. By the 1960s and 1970s, KSSP had grown from a small intellectual circle into a mass organisation with broad popular reach.

The first national Convention of People Science Movements was held in November 1978 in Trivandrum, hosted by the KSSP. The convention focused on defining what a PSM should be and establishing an all-India perspective so that programmes and activities would have a clear-cut direction and purpose. This marked a turning point – the PSM was no longer just a collection of scattered regional groups, but a coordinated national effort.

By 1988, this coordination was formalised when a national network of twenty-six science organisations came together to form the All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN). The AIPSN became a common platform through which diverse groups across the country could collaborate, share resources, and amplify their impact.

The core philosophy: science as a public good 🔗

The basic philosophy of the PSM is that Science and Technology inputs are essential to achieving an equitable and sustainable society – though such inputs alone are not sufficient. The movement recognised that knowledge without critical engagement is incomplete. PSM groups believe that the public needs to develop a critical understanding of S&T in order to participate meaningfully in its growth and application, especially in decisions about which technologies are appropriate in different contexts.

This philosophy set the PSM apart from conventional science communication. It was not about making people passive consumers of scientific facts – it was about building a society capable of questioning, evaluating, and applying scientific knowledge to shape its own future.

The key aims of the People Science Movement 🔗

Over successive conventions and years of grassroots work, the PSM consolidated a set of core objectives that reflect both its social ambitions and its practical commitments.

Disseminating scientific knowledge to the masses 🔗

The most foundational goal of the PSM is reaching people where they are. The movement’s main objectives include popularising scientific knowledge among common people, developing a scientific outlook, and equipping the poor with practical knowledge and skills. This is achieved through workshops, science publications in regional languages, mobile exhibitions, community science centres, and outreach campaigns that simplify complex scientific ideas without stripping them of their substance.

PSM activities span science communication, popular science lectures, street plays, and school science programmes – all designed to reach audiences who might never set foot in a formal science classroom. The movement insists that scientific literacy is not a privilege but a social right.

Fostering a critical understanding of science 🔗

Beyond basic awareness, the PSM pushes for deeper engagement. The movement recognises that not only must it promote scientific literacy, but it must also cultivate a spirit of critical scientific inquiry among the broadest sections of the population.

The All India People’s Science Network operates on the principle that there is scientific content in every social issue – and vice versa. The objective of PSM campaigns is to help audiences reflect on the causes of their deprivation and move toward improving their conditions through organised participation in development. This framing turns science into a tool of social analysis, not just technical problem-solving.

Countering irrational beliefs and superstition 🔗

One of the PSM’s most socially significant goals has been challenging superstition and irrational belief systems. In its early years, the movement’s primary focus was explaining complex phenomena in accessible language and countering superstitious beliefs that attributed disease, death, and disaster to witchcraft. In many parts of rural India, such beliefs were not merely harmless tradition – they actively led to discrimination, exploitation, and harmful practices.

The PSM’s objectives explicitly include challenging supernaturalism and superstition, motivating scientists to address problems relevant to the poor, and developing critical awareness in education. By grounding explanations of natural phenomena in evidence and rational inquiry, the movement works to build a culture where reason – not fear – guides decisions about health, agriculture, and community life.

Mobilising public opinion on science and policy 🔗

The PSM does not stop at education – it enters the political arena as well. The movement informs common people about what science is being done, how, and why – analysing policies, educating communities, and mobilising public opinion on issues. This includes taking positions on environmental legislation, public health delivery, and technology adoption policies.

For instance, the PSM has engaged on issues like the Forest Bill – challenging policies that encroach on the rights of tribal communities – and has raised public awareness on concerns like deforestation, drought, and unsafe pharmaceuticals. PSM groups have given the movement a voice in the media and political arena, and since the 1990s, several PSM groups have been invited to participate in policy discussions.

Programme areas: where the PSM puts its aims into action 🔗

The first national PSM conventions identified four priority areas for coordinated action, and these have continued to shape the movement’s work ever since.

Health 🔗

The PSM has been particularly active in healthcare, where superstition and lack of information have historically had life-or-death consequences. The convention emphasised educating people on simple but effective interventions – such as Oral Rehydration Therapy for managing diarrhoea – and highlighted the link between diseases and conditions like poor sanitation, lack of sewage disposal, and malnutrition rooted in poverty. Women’s health, including campaigns on anaemia and maternal care, also featured as urgent priorities.

Education and innovative teaching 🔗

Transforming how science is taught has been central to the PSM’s work. Rather than rote memorisation, the movement champions hands-on, inquiry-based learning. Suggested activities included publishing science magazines for children, organising community science centres with libraries and audio-visual facilities, and using art and theatre as media for spreading PSM ideas.

Through the AIPSN, the PSM was able to reach 60,000 villages across India, with thousands of activists, teachers, and students travelling the country to promote science literacy – an effort described as unprecedented in its scale. Events like the “Joy of Learning Festivals” in Karnataka continue this tradition today, bringing creative science education to children in rural communities.

Agriculture 🔗

The application of science to farming has been another concrete focus. The PSM supports sustainable agricultural practices by providing farmers with scientific knowledge and techniques to improve crop yield, soil health, and pest management. Training farmers to experiment with and apply science directly to their land – rather than depending on outside experts – reflects the movement’s commitment to grassroots empowerment and self-reliance.

The KSSP, for instance, promoted discussion of alternative plans for agriculture, industry, and electrical power while also campaigning against unsafe drugs and installing high-efficiency cooking stoves – demonstrating how the PSM connects scientific knowledge with direct improvements in daily life.

Environment 🔗

The PSM has consistently argued that environmental issues cannot be addressed in isolation from social and economic realities. A scientific analysis of the interconnections between seemingly unrelated issues is viewed as the only viable basis for effective action on the environment. The movement has engaged with concerns ranging from deforestation and wildlife protection to the environmental impact of large development projects that are often approved without adequate impact assessments.

Who makes up the PSM? 🔗

The PSM is notably diverse. PSM groups vary in size from a small band of individuals in one area to over 30,000 members in others. Some focus on a single issue, while others cover a vast range of concerns – from reducing disparity in scientific knowledge to promoting alternative development models rooted in local science and technology.

Members are drawn primarily from the educated middle classes – scientists, engineers, technologists, teachers, and journalists – but they act on behalf of India’s poor: small peasants, agricultural labourers, rural artisans, craftspeople, tribal communities, and urban workers. This cross-class composition gives the PSM both analytical depth and social reach.

The PSM’s lasting significance 🔗

What distinguishes the People Science Movement from other science outreach efforts is its dual commitment: it is not just about spreading facts, but about building the capacity of ordinary people to question the world around them. The movement sees scientific thinking and the application of scientific principles as necessary for building a society that understands and challenges inequalities – recognising that a consciousness imprisoned in dogma and passive acceptance of superstition lacks the tools needed to build an equal social world.

From its scattered beginnings in the 1950s to a national network spanning dozens of organisations today, the PSM has worked tirelessly to make science a living, democratic force in Indian society – one that empowers communities, challenges power, and improves lives at the most practical level.

What do you think? If scientific knowledge is a public good, why does access to it remain so unequal – and what role should grassroots movements play in closing that gap? And can a movement rooted in rational inquiry also serve as a force for social justice, or do those goals ever come into tension with each other?

References

1. https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-73-peoples-science-movement-karnataka-india/
2. https://www.grin.com/document/504543
3. https://www.sociologydiscussion.com/science/genesis-of-people-science-movement-explained/851
4. https://progressiveforumtiss.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/notes-from-the-talk-on-the-history-of-the-peoples-science-movement-in-india/
5. https://jcom.sissa.it/article/pubid/JCOM_1906_2020_C08/
6. https://www.unm.edu/~varma/print/EPW_Science%20Movements.pdf
7. https://ignoucorner.com/discuss-the-role-people-science-movement-in-developmental-practices-in-india/
8. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14672715.1997.10413092