About Dr.S.Swaminathan
S. Swaminathan was born in Pudukottai, Tamilnadu in 1940. After professionally qualifying in Mechanical Engineering, he worked in Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi for more than 30 years and retired as Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
As a serious teacher he has attempted a number of experiments in teaching. In his view the thrust of the science and technology establishment should be towards helping the ‘poorest of the poor’. His research and development activities were primarily in this direction. He is also a social activist and participates in socially relevant projects. He worked in Centre for Rural Development in IIT Madras, Bharath Gyan Vigyan Samithy, Delhi as the National Coordinator for watershed development and Integrated Rural Technology Centre, Palakkad, Kerala. Holding to his belief that technology must be human-centred and that there exists a cultural route to development, he has participated in teaching a course titled ‘Art and Technology’ at Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi.
Realising that Indian youth have an inadequate understanding of our heritage, and consequently lack a sense of identity, Swaminathan decided to acquaint the students of IIT Delhi with various aspects of our culture. Not being an expert in the field, he found, may sometimes be an advantage, as audience are not put off by jargon, and interact with the speaker in an uninhibited manner. The topics included Indian music, Sanskrit, ancient Tamil literature, Tamil prosody, development of scripts, Gandhian philosophy, etc. He helped setting a centre for arts and culture, called Sudharsanam, in Pudukkottai, his native place towards the twin-aim of documenting the heritage of the district and offering an opportunity to the youth to appreciate their culture.
He has made a very detailed study of Ajanta paintings. His lectures on Ajanta are especially popular. He has attempted a number of modes of documenting and disseminating the art of Ajanta, interactive CDs, multi-purpose folios and extensive PowerPoint presentations are some of them.
He has done a very detailed study of the Pallava art at Mamallapuram and is presently has taken a number of initiatives involving ‘concerned’ individuals in Chennai in documenting the monuments of Mamllapuram and also sensitizing all cross-sections of people about out heritage. A major forthcoming event is a three-day residential Mamallapuram seminar during 23-25th January, 2010. His proposal for setting up a museum is likely to be executed in the near future.
The other major work of his is the Story of Scripts, which starts with the need felt by communities for writing, then on to the five cultures – Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian and Meso-American - which had invented sophisticated writing systems, then the Korean, considered to be the most scientific script of the world, is taken up, then exploring esoteric and religious dimensions through the Tibetan and Siddham scripts and the aesthetic potentialities through calligraphy of Arabic.
He is presently helping an industrialist, who is also his patron, in culture-scaping the SEZ he is developing over 1000 acres in the vicinity of Chennai. This involves designing gardens as thematic heritage groves, showcasing our art/craft in buildings and public places etc.
He is the co-founder of an informal group, Tamil Heritage Group, to take heritage to people, of which organizing monthly programmes is the most successful activity.
He has been advocating compiling a cultural atlas of Tamilnadu, which would be location specific collection of all data for each village/town.
He possesses a huge collection of articles, pictures, political cartoons etc. on a host of topics. Collected over 35 years, these are arranged in a number of albums.
He is keen to interact with the youth on subjects of social and cultural interests. He lives in Chennai and his ID is [email protected].