Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Only those information supported by evidence is true' that was published in Newsband

Only those information supported by evidence is true
Some people want to wallow in past glory. Lets keep our scientific temper and learn to be skeptical about tall claims: irrespective of the origin being Western or Eastern.
The mindset of our Indians is like if there is any mention of present day scieintific advancements in the ancient scripts even if is just a conceptualization then we try to credit the ancient saints as the inventors. We are so much obsessed with our ancient culture and philosophy that for preserving it we don’t consider anyone else credible for the present day advancements rather than pouring the whole credit in the bucket of ancient monks and scholars.
Several civilisations have contributed to the advancement of the frontiers of scientific knowledge for the human race. India has had its fair share of contributions that she can rightly be proud of. Modern Indian scientists have several discoveries they can claim credit for - although many of them win acclaim outside India’s shores.
It is high time every Indian learnt to distinguish between mythology and reality. What is unfortunate is that some people tend to eulogise and glorify whatever they can find about our past, even without valid evidence. In the absence of any evidence, efforts will be made to produce part of the evidence in favour of antiquity. Anybody who talks about these things has the responsibility to prove these things as well - at least on a small scale. If you see the drawings presented with the Vedic papers, it is grotesque. It is now known where we are going by glorifying the past. It makes sense if the ancient knowledge is put to use, not otherwise.
Research is an important part of Science and without doing any proper research nothing should be accepted. Any research or output comes into mind first. Without having idea nothing is possible. Then comes hard actions. Agreed that there are new breed of so called think tanks, scientists and historians, who believe Hindu means full of mythology. That’s not true. Information supported by evidence should be accepted. Whichever fields of ancient Indian science were based on verified and documented work by the ancients have survived to this day - such as Ayurveda and some fields of Mathematics and Astronomy. The rest of it must be taken as Mythology and part of our cultural beliefs and must not be intertwined with hard science.   
Several people express their opinions. Bu none is keen in a fact finding mission. If the Sanskrit works are only fictions, let us once for all prove it and abandon it. But till such time can we not hold the over enthusiasm to rubbish ancient texts?
We are becoming a bunch of fools in the eyes of the world by glorifying our past although there is nothing we can show in terms of usable products. We are still dependent on the Western technology whether it is mission to mars or computers or day to day application of modern technology in every day life. There is nothing we can show that we have developed based on our ancient knowledge. If we are that great we can immediately close down all our labs and hospitals. We should immediately stop this business of saying that we knew everything and we are great. This is detrimental to the development of our science and technology.

It is fine if such boasting of our rich ancient heritage is used to boost our moral and we strive to scale new heights in science But if such claims is going to make us do nothing in present to improve our scientific achievements then it is useless to claim these ancient legacies. India was a pioneer then, now its time to ensure that our country will be a leader in the future to come.

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