Opinion | Comparing Indian Thought Process With Rest of the World

In ancient times, India has been a hub of knowledge for learners throughout the world. History tells us that Nalanda University had students not just from India, but throughout the world. Since time immemorial, Indian thinkers have immensely contributed to Art, Science, Maths, Literature, Medicine and so on. However, it was only because of lack of proper documentation and advertisement that they didn’t become as famous as their western counterparts. For instance, the whole world is similar about the inventions of Euclid, however less heard is the name Budhyan the Indian mathematician who was the first one to calculate the value of pi. Budhyan wrote a pythagoras-like theorem in his book “Sulvi Sitra ” earlier than Pythagoras himself. Less heard is the name of another great mathematician and Astronomer of India Arya-Bhatt who invented zero, who told us the value of pi, who contributed a lot to Astronomy. We have not given due appreciation to eminent scientist of ancient India Vag-Bhatt for his immense contribution in Medicine and Ayurveda. We don’t tell our children about Brahmagupta, the eminent mathematician, the leading mathematician of his time Baskar Acharya. We are yet to introduce our children to Kannada, the talented physicist of the time who gave Atomic theory 600 years before John Dalton, which was much closer to modern Atomic theory, or “Atrey Rishi” and “Charaka” for their contribution in Medical Science. In modern times we were also blessed with a number of Scientists, And thinkers like CV Raman, Ramanujan, and so on.
Let’s leave the quantity of inventions aside and talk of the quality of the inventions and discoveries. I personally, when comparing Indian thought processes with the rest of the world, have always found the former more beautiful than the thought process of the rest of the world. For instance, Hindi poets were the first ones to praise women as sisters and mothers. We find poetry about soldiers, martyrs in Hindi poetry. The second example is the practical perspective of the Indian thought process, most of the Indian modern thinkers were of the practical perspective and not systematic philosophers like their western counterparts, such as Hegel, TH Green and John Locke. Instead of being just philosophers by tongue and words only, they actively participated in the reformation themselves. The thought process of our freedom fighters was equally applicable to other British colonies in Africa and Asia.
Having highlighted the contribution of Indian thinkers in various fields, why do we have an English Department that has only portraits of western literary figures on its walls? I found the answer to this question in the book of R.M. Lohia , “Tyranny of skin colour”, he blames colonisation by white imperialists for being responsible for this mindset. Instead of white British, if Afaricans had ruled the world standards of beauty would have been undoubtedly different, argued Lohia. There are many occasions when people prefer foreign over native. I think it will be relevant, if i include the sociological term “Xenocentrism ” here, which means preference for the foreign. A belief that our products, styles or ideas are inferior to what originates elsewhere. It is the conviction that the exotic has a special charm, which the fimmilar can never achieve. It is based on the glamour of the  strange and faraway and the prestige of distant centres. We must teach our children about our glorious past, about how we can have solutions of life in our own minds. We should respect thinkers throughout the world and utilise their knowledge to move ahead. But, in a conference of mathematics when the name of “Euclid” comes, the name of “Arya-Bhatt” must have been already mentioned. We must strengthen the words of our Hon’Ble foreign Minister Mr. S. Jaishankar, when he said in an interview, “We aim to make in India, but make for the world”.