Areesh
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Certain Indians have already claimed to have discovered plastic surgery, IVF and motor cars. Now, adding to that, a prominent professor in Mumbai has said that Hindu epics are all we need to understand the ancient world. He says we shouldn't rely on modern evidence or research.
Ever since PM Narendra Modi's accession there has been a surge in nationalist sentiments of a strange kind - as if a section of India has been on a trip to rewrite history.
And now, the Indian Science Congress organisers has decided to slip Vedic mythology about aviation into their programme schedule that will be held in 4 January in Mumbai. According to Mumbai Mirror, in a five-day symposium that will have Nobel laureates as speakers, there will be a segment examining the role of "ancient sciences through Sanskrit".
One of the speakers, Captain Anand J Bodas told Mumbai Mirror aeroplane was a vehicle discovered in the Vedic age which could not just move from one country to another, but also from one planet to another. "In those days aeroplanes were huge in size, and could move left, right, as well as backwards, unlike modern planes which only fly forward," he said.
Umm yeah, you read that right aeroplanes could fly backwards.
Citing an ancient Indian treatise on aviation, the Vaimanika Prakaranam as his source text and in an even more bizarre twist for the unbelieving- he said most of its principles have been forgotten because of the passage of time, foreign rulers and things being stolen from the country.
History lessons in schools have also not been spared. Y Sudershan Rao was recently appointed as the head of the Indian Council of Historical Research by the Modi government fuelling concerns of a push to teach the superiority of Hindu values and mythology at the cost of academic rigour; critics also say this goes against the grain of secularism.
Rao is of the opinion that the art of fiction writing hadn't been invented until the last century and because the Mahabharata has been proved to be written at least two millennia ago- they must obviously be accurate and true, reported Reuters.
Two states run by the ruling BJP - Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat - have recruited controversial Hindu nationalist Dinanath Batra to advise on writing textbooks.
In June, thousands of schools in Gujarat were given textbooks by Batra that claimed cars were invented in ancient India and told children to draw an enlarged nation to include countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Joining in on the bandwagon, the PM told an audience of doctors in Mumbai last month, that the Hindu god Ganesh's head was evidence of ancient plastic surgery. Adding that the Kauravas from the Mahabharata born outside his mother's womb were all test-tube baby.
And in case you're wondering, here's a handy list of everything that RSS says India discovered first before the world did.
Planes discovered in Vedic age, it could fly between planets, says speaker at Indian Science Congress - Firstpost
