NEW DELHI: Blurring the distance between history, myth, epic and science, a series of supposed achievements attributed to ancient India have begun to be voiced again by votaries of Hindu culture, but this time inside Indias parliament. From bizarre claims that India conducted a nuclear test centuries ago, to Indias ancient expertise in genetics and plastic surgery, the Lok Sabha has been informed by an elected BJP MP that Indias ancient astrologers dwarfed all other sciences.
Article 51A of Indias Constitution says Indian citizens have the duty to ‘develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform’. While elected representatives could be reminded that they have sworn to uphold the Constitution, parliament has barely witnessed a rational and logical discussion on these outlandish claims. Legislators have instead been preoccupied with objecting to abusive comments also incidentally made by a so-called Sadhvi or monk- a union minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet.
The fight against saffronisation of Indian education to oppose the controversial content introduced in school text books in BJP ruled states by Dinanath Batra- a retired school teacher and former General Secretary of Vidya Bharati, the educational wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has hardly died down, when similar views are being aired in Indias parliament and also echoed by none other than Prime Minister- Narendra Modi.
The Hindustan Times reports that if people with a scientific temper are reaching boiling point, in the absence of technology to go back in time to ancient India for verification trips, little noise is being heard from their quarters against the latest claims.
Here is a sample of what is being dished out as Ancient Indian science:
Nuking reason
Although the world acknowledges India to have conducted two sets of nuclear tests: in 1974 and 1998, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, BJP MP from Haridwar and former Uttarakhand chief minister, disagrees. “Today we are talking about nuclear tests. Lakhs of years ago, Sage Kanad had conducted a nuclear test. Our knowledge and science do not lack anything,” Nishank told Parliament. The elected MP also batted for astrology, calling it is the topmost science in the world. He said our ancient astrologers dwarfed all other sciences.
Cow urine therapy
Promoting cow urine is a priority for the RSS- seen as the BJP’s spiritual and ideological guide. It was reported in May that Madhya Pradesh-based promoters of medicines were looking forward to introducing cow urine or ‘gau-mutra’ as a product, in the hope that a BJP government at the Centre will help their business.
The RSS is keen on promoting a soft drink made from cow’s urine, mixed with products such as aloe vera and gooseberry to fight diseases. Cow urine offers a cure for around 70 to 80 incurable diseases like diabetes. All are curable by cow urine, said Om Prakash, head of the RSS’s cow protection department, in 2009.
Faith in astrology
As union HRD minister, Smriti Irani has charge of all of Indias educational institutions. So, what she says and does is watched keenly, because she is expected to lead by example. When the BJP politician’s astrologer in Bhilwara, Rajasthan predicted that Irani will become president (of India) in five years, last month, after she paid him a visit, it made headlines. Irani was asked about her faith in astrology when she is in charge of education. What I am doing in my personal life is not the responsibility of media to report until and unless it affects my duties, she snapped back.
Karna a product of genetic engineering
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the inauguration of a hospital in Mumbai in October, equated the birth of Karna- a character in the epic- Mahabharata, to a feat of genetic engineering. He said, We can feel proud of what our country achieved in medical science at one point of time. We all read about Karna in Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realise that Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his mother’s womb. This means that genetic science was present at that time. That is why Karna could be born outside his mother’s womb.
Ganesha plastic surgery
Modi didnt stop with genetic engineering. He wanted to add another feather in the cap of ancient Indian wisdom and science. We worship Lord Ganesha, he said, referring to the elephant-headed Hindu God of good fortune. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery, he claimed.
In his book Tejomay Bharat, Dinanath Batra, convenor of Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, claimed stem cell research was invented by an Indian, Dr Ganpat Matapurkar, who was inspired by the Mahabharata.
Sanal Edamaruku, president of Indian Rationalist Association, said people need to differentiate between “myth and reality. “Myths are there in all parts of the world and in all cultures; if we can’t differentiate myth and reality, something is seriously wrong,” Edamaruku said in an e-mail from Helsinki. TRANS ASIA NEWS
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