Many scientific concepts branded as western contributions had origin in India: RGCB chief

Thiruvananthapuram: Many of the basic scientific concepts branded as western contributions had their origin in India and it is imperative to preserve the ethnic knowledge of Indians, said professor Chandrabhas Narayana, Director of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), on Sunday.

Professor Narayana said the education system being followed in the country has impressed in Indian minds that the western world accounts for all basic discoveries of modern science, but an objective search of history would reveal that many of the basic scientific concepts had their origin in India, according to a release by RGCB.

The professor was speaking at an event held by the Department of Culture, Government of India, and the Satsang Foundation at the Poojappura Central Prison here to mark the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav on the eve of Independence Day, the release said.

Ancient Indian scholars and seers were aware of many of the seminal ideas of modern science and mathematics much before the western world came across and propagated them, he is quoted as having said at the event, according to the release.

”Calculus is entirely the contribution of India. Indians were aware of those mathematical principles which the Greeks later popularised as the Pythagoras theorem. The Indians knew that the earth was round and accurately worked out the distances between different points of the globe.

”They knew the basic principles of navigation by clearly determining the routes through which the vessels sailed,” he said and added that Ayurveda has the answer to various chronic ailments like drug-resistant TB and malaria, among others.

The release said Narayana emphasised the need to preserve ethnic knowledge, especially in food security.

It is to achieve this goal a project to preserve and popularise the highly nutritious and pest-resistant local strains of paddy and pepper is taken up as part of the scientific heritage research initiative and the RGCB has taken up a project to revive as many as 40 local strains of paddy and encourage the farmers to cultivate them, the release said.