A valued thinker
In the course of my university life, I came across a bright young man – Murliji, now Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi – years junior to me. But I was impressed by his simple and dignified appearance and look. I was impressed by his interest in knowing everyone and in making friends….As time rolled by, mutual appreciation of each other has increased….Dr. Joshi has been emphasizing on the need of spoken Sanskrit….Dr. Joshi has been bold in his stand and views.
If intellect had a physical dimension, he would be obese
I first came in touch with him when I was editor of The Telegraph and he a professor of physics at Allahabad. We came to know each other not in the traditional way, as journalist and politician but as editor and writer. He would write occasionally, but always with a scintillating nuance, on physics and life, or perhaps physics and mystery. The vicissitudes of life left us on disparate and shifting paths, but it was inevitable that we should meet again. It was immaterial that we agreed on neither physics nor politics. A conversation with him sparkles with observation and intellect.
A book is still Dr. Joshi’s favoured repast, and if intellect had a physical dimension he would be obese. Time always corrodes; that is the essential rule of timelessness. But there are men who challenge it with a smile on their lips and steel in their minds. Dr. Joshi is among them.
Grounding in both science and spirituality gives him the moral courage
Dr. Joshi is a votary of intellectual integrity ay every level. A man who is both a scholar and scientist has been entrusted with the onerous task of administering mammoth ministries of HRD, Science and Technology and Ocean Development. He is a man of wide learning and interests.
As an educationist he elicits the appreciation of his peers...His grounding in both science and spirituality has given him the moral courage and intellectual confidence to withstand any storm.
A physicist with an insight into Sanatana Dharma
There is no reality in the quantum world. This real wisdom of science dawned on those great people only. But for people like Dr. Joshi, this wisdom must have been taught by his parents even before he went to school – The Indian Wisdom of ‘Maya’. Dr. Joshi has been looking into the Indian past to be able to lead the future younger generation into the distant horizon of true wisdom and knowledge. Dr. Joshi needs to be congratulated for being able to withstand all the criticism in that direction. I fell truth gives one the courage to face difficulties in life.
A practical idealist
Dr. Joshi is essentially a teacher, and he practices what he preaches. He is an eminent physicist, but as a human personality, he is interdisciplinary. In his methodology he is highly rationalistic. He is basically a philosopher and a visionary; he is at the same to apply his vision for practical effectuation. He is a practical idealist. As we study Dr. Joshi seriously, we find that he emerges as an illumined leader endowed with great and humane qualities of the heart, mind and spirit. His greatness consists in the fact that he does not seek greatness but wants the greatness of India to be understood and appreciated.
His ideas have vast significance
I admire him for sticking to his convictions, for standing up to his critics boldly and fearlessly and for being an unabashed Hindu, proud of his culture and his country. No Indian has spoken out so sharply, so logically and so daringly before any international audience in the past. Here is a man not afraid to think afresh, and present ideas of vast significance.
A man of vision & dynamism
Globalisation and the opening up of the economy is providing a tough challenge, particularly when education is also considered as a service where international competition is the rule of the game. Dr. Joshi often emphasizes the importance of understanding our oriental value system and its philosophical moorings available in Sanskrit literature and encourages scientists to learn Sanskrit. He is a man full of dynamism and of great vision.
-PROF GK MEHTA, Nuclear physicist and Former Vice-Chancellor, Allahabad University
A benevolent mentor & custodian of values
From his early days, Dr. Joshi has been taking an active part in the maintenance and propagation of our ancient culture and the values contained there in, an essential and rather fundamental part of any system of education. With a firm belief in the concept of swadeshi and the spiritual and cultural values, he considers cultural values as a way to come out of the effects, pressure and influences of globalisation. India today, as always, needs the services of leaders of the stature and calibre of Dr. Joshi to steer clear the country of the ills being faced at the moment, to bring it not only at par but at the top in the country of nations in this fast changing age of globalisation and information technology.
A professor who sparkles intellectuality
The achievements of Dr. Joshi lies in an educational policy rooted into the eternal verities of our cultural and accepting Science and Technology in one brilliant sweep. He is the only open minded scientist who knows that the Upanishads divided knowledge or vidya into Para and Apara. His oratorical style is non-charismatic, with no tricks of demagoguery, the style of a quite steely man, with no flourishes of a showman. He is essentially the professor who sparkles intellectually, a genuine Indian anxious to propagate genuine Indianness of our decades.
An Indian, a purushothama
Dr. Joshi’s strong conviction for upholding the Indian value system and the philosophy that have evolved over several Millennia needs to be admired. I hold Dr. Josh in high esteem not only for his intense desire to place India in its rightful place of pride in the comity of nations but also for his determined efforts to satisfy that desire. I cannot but conclude that Dr. Joshi is an embodiment of all the virtuous qualities that one looks for in a human being a Purushothama.
A bright affirming flame in midst of despair
Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi has helped in taking Science and Technology in India to greater heights of excellence and relevance. He has instilled a new confidence in India’s scientific capability, by drawing attention to our past glory and present pre-determined in several fields of theoretical and applied science. He is a born orator and teacher. He serves as a bright affirming flame in the midst of the sea of despair we see around us. By instilling a sense of pride in our scientific past, he has enabled the younger generation to make India the flagship of the age of technological innovations and inventions.
-PROF. M.S. SWAMINATHAN, FNA, FRS, Noted scientist and former UNESCO Chair Ecotechnology
