Describe two major ways of exploring the universe. Discuss two kinds of information that each of them has provided about the universe.

Observatories in Space-

With the coming of the Space Age, observation&equipped with telescopes and cameras could be placed right in space, beyond the Earth's atmosphere. An observatory in space may be in the form of an orbiting satellite like the Unmanned Orbiting Solar Observatories, Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, Skylab, Einstein Observatory, IRAS (Infra Red-Astronomy Satellite) and many others. An observatory may also be stationed on the Moon or any other planet having suitable temperature and other conditions. Instruments are also put aboard high flying balloons, rockets and aircraft to record observations. These observatories can record radiation from a cosmic object in the regions of the spectrum such as the IR, UV, gamma rays and X-rays that do not penetrate the Earth's atmosphere.

Visiting the Neighboring Worlds-

As space research came of age, it became possible for us to send spacecraft to other planets and even land men and instruments on the Moon. These ventures also provided a rich stock of information about the Solar System. For instance, astronauts of the Apollo mission to the Moon in the nineteen seventies brought back lllnar rocks and soil samples, photographic of the lunar surface' and Left several instruments there for further study. We have been able to send spacecraft, also called probes, across the Solar System to know more about our planetary neighbors. Space probes have visited a number of planets and a host of their moons, and successfully landed and operated on the surfaces of Mars and Venus.

Describe the features of the Indian state and the social organization that helped the growth of science and technology in the Maurya and Gilpta period.

Indian state and ;ts policy is described in detail in Arthasastra. written by Kautilya, the great minister of Chadragupta. According to him, it was a highly centralised state which was the principal owner of industry as well as the greatest producer of commodities. The commodities produced by the state were bought and sold by traders. This large revenue was used to maintain a massive army, of half a million men, which was used to acquire land, protect the land and the frontiers, and maintain law and order in the vast empire. Brahmins, as agents of the crown, spearheaded the move into the new territories. A process was initiated whereby tribal deities were equated with standard Aryan gods. Totemic deities such as primaeval fish,
tortoise, monkey, bull etc. were intraduced into the traditional Hindu scriptures as companions of major gods like Vishnu, or their reincarnations. The Brahmins could impose the caste structure quite easily, as they played an important part in introducing a new mode of agriculture and of commodity production to the tribal people.The superstitions, which provided the ideology of the lower castes, in effect, kept them in subjugation. Finally, these superstitions came to have an adverse effect on the growth of scientific ideas. It is not surprising that Asoka reacted to the development of this superstitious and ritualistic culture by adopting the teachings of Buddha. Buddhism, in its early form, devoid of rituals C and superstitions, stood against oppression and advocated a simple and meaningful life based on reason and compassion.

Compare the life styles and the level of scientific and technical know how of sixteenth century Europe and sixteenth century India. What are the reasons that keep India lagging behind the western countries in almost all areas related to development?

In science, this period from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-eighteenth century includes ;he first great triumphs of the new observational, experimental approach. This new approa n together with'the development in science and technology during tne Renaissance, amounted to a "Scientific Revolution". Technically, this period was of steady advance without any revolutionary inventions. The increasing demand for iron led to development of new blast furnaces. The shortage of wood for iron-smelting led to widespread use of coal. From then on. the centre of industry was to move towards the coal fields. With time, the demand for limited resources increased, forcing the search for new resources and techniques. Thisalso altered the attitudes towards change and novelty, which could not be shunned anymore. You may recall that in the regimented feudal society, new ideas and change were resisted It was in this atmosphere that European science grew to maturity, The first institute for teaching science, the Gresham College, was opened in England in 1579. As we have already seen, the revolQionary Copernican model of the solar system helped in improving astronomical tables, What the theory lacked was an accurate description of the orbits of the planets. Let us now see what the few scientific developments An interesting feature in the early phase of this period was that colonial scientists would try their hand at several fields simultaneously and each scientist was, in fact, a botanist, geologist, geographer and educator-all rolled into one. As data-gatherers, the individual scientists were efficient. However, for analysis and drawing conclusions, they had to depend upon the scientific institutions in Britain, which received such data from many colonies. It was followed by Agricultural-Horticultural Society of India (1817), Calcutta Medical & Physical Society (1 823), Madras Literary and Scientific Society (1818), and the Bombay Branch of the Asiatic Society (1829). These societies rendered invaluable service, particularly through their journals which compared very favourably with the European ones.

Democracy and its developments

Appropriately the word ‘Democracy’ is of Greek origin .the Greek word Democratic is a combination of the words demos (meaning the people) and kratos (meaning power or rule).so democracy in both the ancient and modern worlds is the idea of rule by the people, whether directly-through personal participation or indirectly, through elected representative. Democracy was achieved through struggle and against considerable odds. Indeed, the struggle for democracy everywhere and throughout history, has simultaneously a struggle against political inequality based on, and justified by, inequalities of birth and wealth. A democracy is in few forms like as historically, theoretically, and geographically. Even as it has become the most dominant principle of modern political system, democracy is still fraught with many new and contemporary challenges. The history of democracy tends to begin with an invocation to its origins in ancient Greece. Democracy in the modern world bears any similarity with democracy in ancient Greece. It has been, and continues to remain, one of the most contested concepts in the political vocabulary of the modern world. It means many different things to different people, but the fact that all manner of political regimes have sought to appropriate the label ‘democracy’ to legitimize them, clearly shows that it carries a positive normative connotation. Rather like justice and freedom then democracy is widely perceived to be a good thing, and a desirable attribute for a polity to process. Task of determining which democracies are truly worthy of the name, or of distinguishing between polities in terms of the extent of democracy they have achieved, is a difficult if not impossible one. But judging contemporary democracies is so fraught with difficulty; the task of describing the evaluation of democracy in the modern world is no less contentious. Historians disagree about the origins of modern democratic ideas, as also about the emergence of democratic institutions. The French declaration of the rights of man was an early statement of democratic principles, while for others it was a manifesto of the bourgeois class which. Though opposed to hierarchy based on nobility, was neither egalitarian nor democratic. By jean-Jacques Rousseau democracy is that, with his faith in the direct participation of the citizens in the making of laws, who is the premier philosopher of democracy. John Locke is for some the first significant theorist of liberal-democratic ideas, for others he is at best a theorist of constitutional government. But the 2500 years of (1992) democracies were enthusiastically celebrated all over the world. This anniversaries statesman, founding of nations are quite commonly celebrated. Democracy in modern world is quite different from democracy as it was practiced in ancient Greece 2500 years ago. The practice of democracy is in the modern world having varied greatly. Each of the nation-states that today claims to be democratic has arrived at its own distinctive form of democracy by a quite distinctive route. History, society and economy are powerful influences shaping democracy, as are democratic ideas and ideal. It is a mix of material and the ideological that must explain democracy anywhere. Finally we can say that, the struggle for democracy is never concluded; it just constantly assumes new forms.