Introduction

From February to December 2012, I worked at a laboratory in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru – one of the leading scientific research institutions in India – as a lab member/visiting researcher. This enabled me to interview and converse with lab members and scientists from various departments of IISc. I revisited the field in 2016. IISc is the habitat of India's elite scientists; some of them are world-renowned scientists in their field. Most of the scientists who work there obtained their PhDs and post-doctoral training from leading American and British universities. The majority of the IISc scientists are Hindus, with a few Christians. The scientists I had conversations with were mostly Hindus, though I interviewed some Christians as well.

This chapter attempts to understand the various ways in which Indian scientists defined their religious life by claiming a distinct religious identity – distinct, specifically, from laypeople/non-scientists. As we will see, they make this distinction not by saying that they are nonbelievers or atheists; in fact, they have no inhibition in demonstrating their devotion by participating in various religious festivals and rituals. Rather, the distinction relates to the manner of their belief and the practices they follow.

The scientists in my study cautioned against comparing science and religion and did not perceive any conflict between the two domains. For them, both these realms are important in their life, and they claimed not to see science through the eyes of religion, or religion through the eyes of science. Many scientists admitted that religion cannot be explained using the ‘scientific’ method. I argue that for many of these scientists, the relationship between science and religion is about neither the pursuit to prove the existence of God, nor the search for compatibilities between the two. Rather, they considered such enquiries superfluous and wholly unnecessary. For them, religion cannot be conceptualized from an ‘objective’ point of view since religion and science occupy different realms. At the same time, they do not separate or posit science and religion in oppositional terms as they think their religious beliefs and practices help them to do better science.

Although these scientists have no inhibition in demonstrating their religiosity, we will see that they do make a clear attempt to distinguish their belief as scientists from that of non-scientists. As we will see, they try to be ‘rational believers’.