India is not only the light of knowledge but also accommodates various cultures and ideas. This openness reflects an important feature of history. This is the reason why from the 6th to the 12th century AD, India’s image was established as Vishwa Guru in Asia.
At present, whatever progress the world has made in the field of science, concepts like zero, decimal, geography, astronomy and time calculation have contributed significantly to it. Due to which it has become possible for the world to go to the moon. India introduced this to the world because India has a rich knowledge tradition at its core. But with time we moved away from this tradition. Why has it become necessary to know the Indian knowledge tradition after 75 years of independence? Because during the British rule, through a conspiracy, Indian knowledge was completely rejected without any hesitation and Sanskrit was declared a dead language and the Vedas were the songs of shepherds. The most surprising thing in this is that influenced by Englishism, a large section of the country also believed this.
Today, the name of rejecting this belief and misunderstanding is Indian knowledge tradition. Which has been the foundation stone of India. If we talk about 5 thousand years ago, then in Kurukshetra, Shri Krishna gave the element of knowledge in the form of Geeta to the world by making Arjun a medium. The first English translation of the Gita was done by Charles Wilkins in 1785, since then the Bhagavad Gita alone has been translated into 75 languages across the world. There are more than 300 translations of it in English alone. If all these were songs of the dead and shepherds, then why would the world surrender to it. Right now we are talking only about the Bhagavad Gita, whereas the Indian knowledge tradition is a very big ocean. It has four Vedas, six Vedangas, 108 Upanishads, 6 philosophies, 18 Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata and much more, which attract the world towards India.
When the dark age of knowledge was going on in the world, lakhs of Indian and foreign students were studying in 39 universities like Takshila, Nalanda and Vallabhi in India. Perhaps that is why India’s image had been established as the world teacher in Asia. The world was called upon by these centres of knowledge and science of India that “O people of the earth, come and learn about your character and return to your respective places”. This openness shows an important characteristic of Indian culture and history. America’s famous writer and historian Will Durant, while explaining Indian culture, had said that “Our civilisation originated from India and Sanskrit is the mother of all European languages. Our entire philosophy has originated from Sanskrit. Our mathematics is its gift. Democracy and self-governance have also originated from India”.
But the way our Gurukul and knowledge tradition was destroyed during the British period and Englishness was forcibly imposed on us. Due to which we forgot our glorious tradition and perhaps that is why the talent of India also turned towards educational institutions like Harvard and Cambridge. Otherwise the truth is that forget about decimal or zero, the numbers which are being used in the whole world today have come from India. From the freedom struggle to after independence, efforts were made to make some things controversial. Due to which our knowledge tradition kept lagging behind.
If we talk about economic prosperity along with knowledge, then India has been an economically dominant country as well, India was not called the golden bird for nothing. Till the 15th century, India’s share in world trade was up to 36 percent, which remained up to 24 percent till the arrival of the British. But when the British left the country, one decimal came and stood between 24. In the year 2018, a research published in Columbia University Press revealed that the British looted about Rs 3175 lakh crore from India between 1765 and 1938. Which was 17 times more than the current GDP of Britain. Despite all these challenges and deceit, India is rapidly emerging as a big economy on the strength of its knowledge and skills. It is estimated that by the financial year 2028, India will become the third-largest economy by leaving behind both Japan and Germany.
At present, many efforts are being made in the country to introduce Indianness to the new generation. In which the National Education Policy 2020 is also a part. This policy will make the present and future generations aware of their cultural traditions, knowledge systems and economic contexts, so that they can understand and respect their roots. This will promote rational analytical thinking among the youth, which will enable them to make a fair assessment of the good and bad aspects of their past.
(This is the researcher’s own opinion, Researcher Dr. Harisingh Gour, University of Sagar, M.P.)
