Recently I read a debate in The Hindu about scientists compulsion to explain their discoveries to laymen in their language. The debate was balanced from both sides. Both writers argued well. Gautam R. Desiraju who concluded his thoughts by saying that a scientist is not duty bound to communicate his or her work to the laymen also raised a question about the understanding of hard sciences and soft sciences. Firstly, it should be clear to a 'laymen' that what is soft science and hard science. 'Hard Science' includes conventional Physics, Chemistry, Botany etc, where on the other side 'Soft science' includes Sociology, History, Political science, Economics etc. Mr. Desiraju doubted the ability of a common man to even understand soft sciences in a better way than hard one. His question is quite good. In a country like India, where innovations and illiteracy go hand in hand, it is difficult to found the loopholes. Let us take an example of History which is ...