I had a powerful sense of déjà vu while reading about the proclamations being made in the recently concluded 106th Indian Science Congress. Several academics and scientists had cited examples from mythology to support their claims that stem cell research, plastic surgery, aircraft technology had all existed in ancient India. What’s more, some academics even rubbished the findings of Newton and Einstein. The language, tone and tenor sounded intensely familiar for I had heard such claims from my own relatives.
Coming from a family steeped in the traditions and culture of our land, I was raised on a regular diet of stories from the epics and Puranas. My fondest childhood memories are those of sitting in the room of my grandparents while they regaled me with tales from the Mahabharata, Ramayana or Panchatantra and occasionally from the Jataka tales. They made the epics come alive with their storytelling skills and at those moments, I would be completely lost and oblivious to the outside world. But for my grandparents, apart from the moral lessons imparted, the epics were proof of our ancient knowledge and advancement. According to them, Karna’s birth was actually artificial insemination, the Kauravas were an example of cloning (déjà vu again). Ganesha was an example of plastic surgery (double déjà vu!!) & Ravana’s aircraft “pushpaka vimana” was an example of our aeronautical skills.
The list went on. “See how much our people knew!!” My grandmother would exclaim. Not just at home, even at school, I remember a Hindi teacher claiming that whatever the world knows now, ancient Indians knew it first thousands of years ago. And though now I am almost loath to admit it, my young impressionable mind accepted this as the gospel truth.
The adult me now is amazed at how widespread this belief really is, at least in the circles that I move in. I hear such claims even now from several relatives (for the most part elderly, but at times youngish relatives too) And while I deeply respect our epics and puranas and love their rich imagery, imagination, stories and the solid moral values that they impart, but I also believe that mixing up mythology and science is setting a dangerous precedent, not to mention the fact that it is also making us a laughing stock in front of the world. In the age of 24/7 media coverage, it didn’t take much time for news of such pseudo-scientific claims to spread.
It almost looks as if these claims are a way to mask a deep-rooted inferiority complex, for we as a country have not come up with many scientific discoveries or even produced many outstanding scientists or researchers post independence. The talent that we did produce left our shores and did their finest work abroad. A Firstpost article that I recently read quotes figures by Unesco which put a spotlight on how sorely we are lacking in scientific research and development. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics data, the country spends only 0.8 % of its GDP on research and development compared to Israel which spends 4.2% and South Korea which spends 4.3% of their GDP on R&D. Neighbouring China spends 2% of its GDP and the US spends 2.7% of its GDP.
Rather than citing examples from mythology to bolster our scientific advancement claims, we seriously need to invest more in scientific research and development. And we need to start young by increasing the interest levels in science among students perhaps with incentives like scholarships. Also, we need to overhaul our education system which is too focused on cramming facts and puking in tests rather than on a real understanding of concepts and their applications in the real world. I know it is easier said than done, but we can if we put our minds to it. We do have Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan as a shining example of what we really can achieve.
And coming back to mythology, our mythology does have invaluable lessons on morality, character, human nature, inclusiveness and tolerance-things that are becoming more important day by day. And by all means, we can introduce kids to them. And while we are at it, we also need to tell kids about ancient India’s genuine scientific achievements like the invention of zero and the numeric system, our advancements in measuring systems and our contributions to steel and metallurgy. Just let’s not say that Kauravas were an example of stem cell research or Ravana’s Pushpaka Vimana was the first aeroplane. For the sake of everybody’s good, let’s not mix science and mythology.