Introduction

When we look around, we see that modern systems - economic, social, technological, educational, health, governance etc. - appear to inexorably lead towards crises in individual lives and in society at large. The rise of individualism, which is central to modernity, along with associated "ideas" like freedom, rights and equality, pushes us towards comparison and competition and converts every want into a need. This has deeply disrupted Indian families and society. The problems of modernity which are faced by everyone across the unipolar world of western liberalism gets aggravated in India because of the festering wounds inflicted by the brutal Islamic and British rule we endured over centuries. During the Islamic rule we were terrorized, which was further compounded with a sense of shame during the British rule. As a people we, perhaps, need to derive strength and wisdom from our still surviving civilizational roots and to heal our wounded collective psyche. 

You will find here an overview, blog posts and resources about Bharatiyata in the context of modernity.

Overview

We unquestioningly believe everything that we are told when young. Many false ideas lodge in our minds because of this conditioning, but to dislodge a wrong idea from our heads takes a lot of convincing. The topics (Ganita, Vigyan, Shiksha etc.) are chosen to clear our misconceptions through:

a. Presenting the correct version of things that you were told lies about in your educational journey.

b. Presenting information that may be new to you and which can help you see things in the correct perspective.

(As an example, the Angus Maddison graph under the topic on Arthashastra shows that India and China were the richest countries in the world for 18 centuries. Isn’t it strange that you can get educated in India and be completely unaware of this?)

Browse through the topics under this section to learn more...

The Kerala School of Mathematics (14th to 19th century CE...
...led by Madhava, was an intellectual hub that blazed new trails in formulating the power series – the trignometrical sine, cosine, and inverse tangent as well as pi series, which antedated similar mathematical formulations in Europe by a couple of centuries. Geometrical algebra was also developed, as evidenced by the sixteenth-century work, the Kriyakramakari. 
(Reference: ‘Science in India: A historical perspective’ by B. V. Subbarayappa. Page 26)

Calculus in India before Newton
The clearest exposition of the calculus in India, in the Yuktidipika, was written by Sankara Variyar (1500-1560)…
(Reference: http://ckraju.net/papers/calculus_abstract_2.pdf. Page 2)

The place value system…
…that leads to efficient arithmetic, as in the methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, was invented in India.
(Reference: Brahmasphutasiddhanta of Brahmagupta of 7th c. From Professor CK Raju’s
talk at MIT, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaodCGDjqzs)

Bharatiyata - Resources

The following is a list of articles and books that go into more depth and highlight various aspects of Bharatiyata. Please click on the links to read:

  • M.K. Gandhi
  • Dharampal: Collected Writings
    • Volume I: Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century - Introduction
    • Volume II: Civil disobedience in Indian tradition - Introduction
    • Volume III: The Beautiful Tree - Introduction
    • Volume IV: Panchayat raj and India's polity - An Exploration into the Proceedings of the Constituent Assembly
    • Volume V: Essays on tradition recovery and freedom - Bharatiya chitta, manas and kala
  • Sri Aurobindo:
    • Book 1 - A preface on national education
    • Book 2 - Perfection of the body
    • Book 3 - The training of the logical faculty
    • Book 4 - The training of the mental faculties
    • Book 5 - The training of the senses
  • Ananda Coomaraswamy:
    • Book 1 - What has India contributed to human welfare
    • Book 2 - Indian nationality
    • Book 3 - The influence of modern Europe on Indian art
    • Book 4 - Education in India
    • Book 5 - Memory in education
    • Book 6 - Swadeshi
    • Book 7 - Music and education in India
  • Rabindranath Tagore

Updates

Please fill the required field.
Please fill the required field.
Please fill the required field.

Quick Contacts