Sunil Ambekar said India has always been an enterprising society, and agriculture is an important element to it.
India has a vast knowledge system that is still waiting to be explored, and it is the duty of the young thinkers and scholars to ensure that people are aware of the vastness of the Indic knowledge system, said Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar.
Contrary to popular misconception, he said India has always been a scientific society. “Science has been embedded in our day to day lives for thousands of years. Somehow this misconception made deep roots that we were not scientific. This is absolutely wrong. The common understanding of science of the billion plus Indian population is excellent,” said Ambekar.
He was speaking at the launch of the book ‘A Brief History of Science in India by Sabareesh PA’, published by Garuda Prakashan, in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Monday (March 21). Evening.
Talking about other misconceptions, Ambekar said that it has been ingrained in us that India was only an agriculture-dominant society, but it’s not true. India has always been an enterprising society, and agriculture is an important element in it.
Speaking at the event, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said, “As a human being, we are constantly endeavouring to discover the hidden and unknown. What we keep discovering becomes part of our scientific achievement and success, and what remains undiscovered and undiscoverable, becomes part of religion. That also gives a human being the discipline to do the tasks he has to do. The deeper you go, you realise the bottom line is common for science, for history and for human existence. Through this book, we are trying to combine it.”
In more than 300 pages, the book delves into how scientific temper and research have always been an integral part of the Indic knowledge system and Indian society.
Explaining the significance of the Indo-centric research, JNU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit said that our biggest drawback has been the lack of sufficient Indo-centric research. Exhorting young scholars to write more and more, Prof. Pandit said that our endeavour should be to develop a robust Indo-centric narrative.
India has a vast treasure of knowledge that has evolved over thousands of years. Because of continuous invasions, the common people today are not aware of how great our culture and knowledge system once was.
Highlighting why more effort was needed to bring out great aspects of our ancient literature, the publisher of Garuda Books, Sankrant Sanu, said that we have been fed for years that Western civilisation was scientific and we owe a lot to it. But the reality is not so. Many of the modern research achievements find mentions in ancient Indian texts, and the need of the hour is to bring it out.
In the book, author Sabareesh PA, who is also a research scholar in JNU, contests the propagation that Western science’s evolution is entirely linked to the ancient Greek tradition or the West in modern times, without any recognition of debt to the eastern scientific and philosophical traditions, particularly India.
“This idea has been dumped into the national consciousness of India and Indians effectively since the beginning of Western colonialism, since the advent of the Portuguese and, in particular, the British. The diverse scientific knowledge available in different languages like Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic, Persian, Tamil, Malayalam etc., is proof of the diverse scientific culture and heritage of India,” Sabareesh said.
