One of my forefathers nine generations ago was a great holy man. Well this is not a belief but documented fact by conventional standards. I do believe it, sans the ‘miracles’ that he did! Seems he mesmerized even the Islamic rulers of the region in his times. I am certainly proud of the lineage, to the extent I believe is true and not the exaggeration as is usually associated with great men and saints. But the question really is – What does it mean for me? I am a product of the positive and/or negative influences on the subsequent generations which were either the result of the society/times they lived in or their own creation. Most importantly, I am result of my own karma! So really speaking, apart from being ‘proud’ of the lineage, I have no right to derive any further benefits from a great lineage. I can probably tread a path to propagate the ‘teachings’ of my forefather. But again that would be my karma. Essentially there is nothing that I should morally proclaim as my ‘greatness’ based on my forefather’s achievements. If at all, it belonged certainly to him, his parents probably, his family and the society at large, in those times which enabled him to be what he was.
I am overwhelmed by the ‘new’ discoveries that we have come to realize since past few years and prominently since past few weeks. Seems ‘our’ (and we will deal with ‘our’ later) forefathers had invented and discovered everything from the most advanced weapons, nuclear technologies, aircraft, surgical procedures and advanced medical practices, economics, interplanetary motions and what not !. You speak of it and seems, you supposedly have got the answer in the ancient history of Bharat! The references given in most of the cases are ancient documents written in Sanskrit, the original versions of which most of us are not privy to read or incapable of doing so. So the source of all the information for common man (who is not illiterate but ‘ill’ literate) really is the statements given by some ‘scholars’ or the posts in social media. Given the ‘credibility’ of both, a layman like me would certainly have questions. Is all that true? If yes, why is all the information lost? Is it something that can stand the test of today’s times? And most importantly, what does it mean for me today? Interestingly the outcome of this discussion is not a function of any one of the questions, but a sum average of all of them combined.
Let’s start with the first one. Is it true? Well it certainly has not been proved false! But does that mean everything is true? Going by the hypothesis that humans were like, what they are today (well not everyone was god!) , would somebody have written about the ‘fascinating’ things unless they existed? Or had a reason to imagine so? Unless it’s a recent interpretation that intends to map modern inventions/discoveries to co-related mention of events in ancient history (some prefer to call it mythology…either ways). But even if you assume that to be mythology, the authors were indeed real figures. So either they had fertile brains which could imagine of things thousands of years before time or those things existed. However, assuming, or knowing that there have been some specific mention about events/ machines the question is – Do I believe that it all existed to be true based on what is mentioned? Also –And this is more interesting, if couple of claims are indeed proven to be true, does it mean that all of them are? Hard to tell. The other obvious question would be where is the information lost? We hear that it was lost during the ‘foreign rule’ for almost thousand years. But then India has a fairly documented history of around 1000-1500 years before that. Don’t see mention of many of these things then. Was the information encoded and hidden? What may have been the objective? We need to find this Holy Grail to conclusively say anything further.
The other question is more relevant. What does it mean to the present and future generations? For one, if true, it certainly gives you the sense of pride in being Indian/Hindu (whichever way you look at it). But what beyond that? Does it, in current state materially help change the direction of our scientific journey? Probably not, since that would have been already taken care of, by now. The obvious answer is the ‘softer ‘aspect of this information which is of more value to the creators of this information. Few objectives that I can think of are
1. Help branding of ‘Bharat’ internationally. This is less likely in absence of concrete proof since there are/would be similar claims by different cultures and civilizations worldwide which have to go through the scrutiny of the scientific community. Besides, by the same analogy that we reject western claims, why would we expect them to accept ours in absence of a documentary proof and chain of evidence which is their method of evaluation?
2. Internal Branding – This certainly seems to be the case. Already, Indians (and by that I mean resident, NRI, PIO etc. etc.) are exuberant with the idea. As I said, it always feels great to cherish the accomplishment of one’s forefathers.
3. Promoting the idea to future generations- That seems to be the next step.
4. The ultimate goal being the socio-political leverage arising out of the mass hysteria.
We have to tread very carefully on these matters. While a sense of elated national/religious pride may help us to some extent in terms generating positivity, it definitely will not solve our long term problems. Kids are the most vulnerable. I still remember being proud in my school days, knowing the fact that Aryabhata invented zero. I still am. However, the experience of realizing what you studied earlier to be untrue (or not an established and acceptable fact- I am being technically correct here!) is a difficult one. I have been there, when quite a few of my school concepts where changed later on. I am sure many of us have been there too. In the process of undoing Macaulayism, we need to be careful that we are not replacing it with an indigenous version! Because the impact would be equally bad in either case.
So what you may ask? Should we just disregard all the historic /mythological information as junk? Certainly not. That information is certainly invaluable from historic and scientific perspective. We should certainly not be disregarding it because it’s not proven. There have to be efforts made in the right direction to unearth more facts. However, claiming these as facts should be avoided unless they go through the right tests of reasoning and science. And there is no harm in telling kids that XYZ is mentioned in our ancient scriptures and we are still ascertaining the facts. So yes, bringing forth ‘facts’ about the past which are hitherto not known- yes we need to do that. But glorifying the past based on untenable information- to be avoided.
Lastly, do we need all these things to be ‘more’ proud of? Speaking for me, I am proud of being a Bharatiya/ Indian/Hindu irrespective of these steroids. One doesn’t love his or her parents any more based on their achievements! Throughout human history, there have been multiple cultures that have reached the zenith of glory at different times. We are one of them. And they have achieved the glory based on their hard work and perseverance. We have no claim on what is rightfully theirs. Neither do we need their crutches to build a strong and glorious India. We can!
A nation that forgets its past doesn’t have a future. Well, a nation that distorts its past is called Pakistan.
Jai Hind
I am overwhelmed by the ‘new’ discoveries that we have come to realize since past few years and prominently since past few weeks. Seems ‘our’ (and we will deal with ‘our’ later) forefathers had invented and discovered everything from the most advanced weapons, nuclear technologies, aircraft, surgical procedures and advanced medical practices, economics, interplanetary motions and what not !. You speak of it and seems, you supposedly have got the answer in the ancient history of Bharat! The references given in most of the cases are ancient documents written in Sanskrit, the original versions of which most of us are not privy to read or incapable of doing so. So the source of all the information for common man (who is not illiterate but ‘ill’ literate) really is the statements given by some ‘scholars’ or the posts in social media. Given the ‘credibility’ of both, a layman like me would certainly have questions. Is all that true? If yes, why is all the information lost? Is it something that can stand the test of today’s times? And most importantly, what does it mean for me today? Interestingly the outcome of this discussion is not a function of any one of the questions, but a sum average of all of them combined.
Let’s start with the first one. Is it true? Well it certainly has not been proved false! But does that mean everything is true? Going by the hypothesis that humans were like, what they are today (well not everyone was god!) , would somebody have written about the ‘fascinating’ things unless they existed? Or had a reason to imagine so? Unless it’s a recent interpretation that intends to map modern inventions/discoveries to co-related mention of events in ancient history (some prefer to call it mythology…either ways). But even if you assume that to be mythology, the authors were indeed real figures. So either they had fertile brains which could imagine of things thousands of years before time or those things existed. However, assuming, or knowing that there have been some specific mention about events/ machines the question is – Do I believe that it all existed to be true based on what is mentioned? Also –And this is more interesting, if couple of claims are indeed proven to be true, does it mean that all of them are? Hard to tell. The other obvious question would be where is the information lost? We hear that it was lost during the ‘foreign rule’ for almost thousand years. But then India has a fairly documented history of around 1000-1500 years before that. Don’t see mention of many of these things then. Was the information encoded and hidden? What may have been the objective? We need to find this Holy Grail to conclusively say anything further.
The other question is more relevant. What does it mean to the present and future generations? For one, if true, it certainly gives you the sense of pride in being Indian/Hindu (whichever way you look at it). But what beyond that? Does it, in current state materially help change the direction of our scientific journey? Probably not, since that would have been already taken care of, by now. The obvious answer is the ‘softer ‘aspect of this information which is of more value to the creators of this information. Few objectives that I can think of are
1. Help branding of ‘Bharat’ internationally. This is less likely in absence of concrete proof since there are/would be similar claims by different cultures and civilizations worldwide which have to go through the scrutiny of the scientific community. Besides, by the same analogy that we reject western claims, why would we expect them to accept ours in absence of a documentary proof and chain of evidence which is their method of evaluation?
2. Internal Branding – This certainly seems to be the case. Already, Indians (and by that I mean resident, NRI, PIO etc. etc.) are exuberant with the idea. As I said, it always feels great to cherish the accomplishment of one’s forefathers.
3. Promoting the idea to future generations- That seems to be the next step.
4. The ultimate goal being the socio-political leverage arising out of the mass hysteria.
We have to tread very carefully on these matters. While a sense of elated national/religious pride may help us to some extent in terms generating positivity, it definitely will not solve our long term problems. Kids are the most vulnerable. I still remember being proud in my school days, knowing the fact that Aryabhata invented zero. I still am. However, the experience of realizing what you studied earlier to be untrue (or not an established and acceptable fact- I am being technically correct here!) is a difficult one. I have been there, when quite a few of my school concepts where changed later on. I am sure many of us have been there too. In the process of undoing Macaulayism, we need to be careful that we are not replacing it with an indigenous version! Because the impact would be equally bad in either case.
So what you may ask? Should we just disregard all the historic /mythological information as junk? Certainly not. That information is certainly invaluable from historic and scientific perspective. We should certainly not be disregarding it because it’s not proven. There have to be efforts made in the right direction to unearth more facts. However, claiming these as facts should be avoided unless they go through the right tests of reasoning and science. And there is no harm in telling kids that XYZ is mentioned in our ancient scriptures and we are still ascertaining the facts. So yes, bringing forth ‘facts’ about the past which are hitherto not known- yes we need to do that. But glorifying the past based on untenable information- to be avoided.
Lastly, do we need all these things to be ‘more’ proud of? Speaking for me, I am proud of being a Bharatiya/ Indian/Hindu irrespective of these steroids. One doesn’t love his or her parents any more based on their achievements! Throughout human history, there have been multiple cultures that have reached the zenith of glory at different times. We are one of them. And they have achieved the glory based on their hard work and perseverance. We have no claim on what is rightfully theirs. Neither do we need their crutches to build a strong and glorious India. We can!
A nation that forgets its past doesn’t have a future. Well, a nation that distorts its past is called Pakistan.
Jai Hind
No comments:
Post a Comment