According
to the celebrated American author of The Story of Civilization, Will Durant,
“It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier, India has sent to the West
such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess,
and above all numerals and the decimal system.
India was
the mother of our race and Sanskrit the mother of Europe’s languages. She was
the mother of our philosophy, mother through the Arabs, of much of our
mathematics, mother through Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity,
mother through village communities of self-government and democracy. Mother
India is in many ways the mother of us all.”
Despite
India’s extraordinary civilisational achievements being well documented by
respected Western scholars, accurate knowledge of the country’s history has
seldom entered the public domain, most especially in Britain.
This blog
post about an India that many of us know little about, lists the fifteen
ground-breaking contributions that India has made to the lives that all of us
lead today in Britain, and around the world.
“..India
has sent to the West such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables,
hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system. She was the
mother of our philosophy..of much of our mathematics..of the ideals embodied in
Christianity..of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways
the mother of us all.” Will Durant.
1.
The Indian/Hindu Numeral System:
Few people
are aware that the numbers that we all use today are an Indian invention. Often
referred to as Arabic numerals, after the Arab traders who brought Indian
mathematical concepts to the West, this path-breaking Indian invention replaced
the cumbersome Roman numeral system in use in the West until then, and stands
as one of the greatest human inventions of all time.
“We owe
a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile
scientific discovery could have been made.” Albert Einstein.
The
ingenious Indian system succeeded where the efforts of other great
civilisations failed, and today underpins the foundation of modern mathematics
and its infinite uses in our day-to-day lives.
Beyond the
numeral system itself, a number of other critical mathematical principles also
have their routes in India, whose scientific texts and discoveries were
regularly studied by foreign scholars, from Greek philosophers to Arab
mathematicians, and from British inventors to Nazi and Cold War era rocket and
nuclear scientists.
“Nearly
all the philosophical and mathematical doctrines attributed to Pythagoras are
derived from India.” Ludwig von Shroeder.
2. Carburised Steel:
Ancient
Indians were known pioneers in metallurgy, and had mastered the production of
high quality steel more than two thousand years before the process was finally
demystified (including through the scientific investigations of Michael
Faraday) in Britain and Europe. The legendary Indian Wootz Steel was a source
of astonishment to other great civilisations from Ancient Greece to Persia, and
from Arabia to Ancient Rome. It was so advanced and prized that it was selected
by King Porus as a gift over the gold and silver also offered to him by
Alexander the Great.
The ancient
Indian technique of making high quality steel today forms the basis of modern
steel production for everything from the vehicles we travel in, to the cutlery
we eat with. Barely seven decades after independence, India has again become a
world leader in metallurgy and high quality steel production.
3.
Contributions to Western Philosophy:
Historians
are well aware that the Ancient Greeks and Romans were infatuated with India,
just as our forefathers in Britain were during the early modern era. As much as
the Ancient Greeks marvelled over Indian technology, town planning and state
craft, they also actively sought new ideas and thoughts from India’s Vedic
scriptures and philosophers, as well as by learning at ancient Indian
universities such as Taxila and Nalanda.
Many
scholars have pointed to significant Indian contributions to Ancient Greek
philosophy, often portrayed as the foundation of human - and certainly Western
- philosophy. In a thorough recent analysis in The Shape of Ancient Thought,
American scholar Thomas McEvilley also details how Indian philosophy directly
influenced key facets of pre-Socratic Greek philosophy.
“Is it
not probable that the Brahmins were the first legislators of the earth, the
first philosophers, the first theologians - The Greeks, before the time of
Pythagoras, travelled into India for instruction.” Voltaire.
4.
Clothing the world:
Another
revolutionary Indian contribution was the development, production and use of
cotton textiles for clothing. The Ancient Greeks were initially not even
familiar with cotton, instead often wearing animal skins until the wars of
Alexander the Great, during which they discovered and started using Indian
garments, which essentially clothe all of us today.
“Hundreds
of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with
matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries.” The
Columbia Encyclopedia.
For us in
Britain, it is important to be aware that one of the pillars of our wealth as a
modern nation, and a foundation of our industrial revolution, was directly
derived from knowledge and experience of high quality textiles production and
trade gained in India, as well as what many economic historians argue was the
deliberate dismantling of India’s pioneering textiles industry. In his book The
Political Economy of Imperialism, Dan Nadudere states that “It was by
destroying the Indian textile industry that the British textile industry ever
came up at all.”
For a
broader understanding of an India that few of us are aware of, I would
recommend watching the brilliant British historian Michael Wood’s The Story of
India.
“If I
were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its
choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and
has found solutions, I should point to India.” Max Mueller.
5.
Ancient Democracy:
The ancient
republic of Athens has long been considered the oldest non-tribal, organised
democracy in the world. During the modern era, racially motivated European
‘historians’ distorted or simply re-wrote significant Indian and colonial
historical achievements, from pettily changing the date of the life and death
of the revered Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, to make it appear as if
he lived after Pericles and Socrates, to omitting known references to the
existence of ancient Indian republics, known as Gana-Sangha (equal assembly),
or Gana-Rajya (equal government).
In the same
vein, the history of the ancient Indian republic of Vaishali, which dates back
to 600 BCE - almost a century before the institution of Athenian republican
democracy - was also ‘adjusted’ to support colonial propaganda of the day.
Ironically, Ancient Greece itself demonstrated significant respect and
attraction towards India and its achievements, but the legacy of modern-era
colonial propaganda in this and many other facets of our collective history,
remain with us to this day.
“Through
such chronological manipulations, the threat that the Indian past presents to
the Greek miracle [as postulated by European supremacists] is defused by
chronology.” Thomas McEvilley.
Another completely
distinct and more widely known ancient form of Indian democracy is the
localised ‘panchayat’ system, which literally means an ‘assembly of five’ wise
and respected elders. Unlike ancient Indian city and state-level republics,
panchayats started as a form of localised grassroots democracy more than three
thousand years ago, have survived the rise and fall of repeated conquests and
empires, and are still a central feature of India’s modern democratic
apparatus.
“India
was the mother of..village communities of self-government and democracy.” Will
Durant.
6.
Water on the Moon:
One of
Independent India’s most notable contributions to modern space exploration
occurred between 2008 and 2009, with Chandrayaan-1, the Indian Space Research
Organisation’s (ISRO) first dedicated lunar mission.
ISRO’s
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carried both ISRO and NASA instruments,
of which the Indian ‘Moon Impact Probe’ first detected the presence of lunar
water. This was achieved three months before NASA’s ‘Moon Mineralogy Mapper’
(also part of Chandrayaan-1) made the same breakthrough, to which the discovery
of lunar water is often attributed.
“We
want to thank ISRO for making the discovery possible. The moon till now was
thought to be a very dry surface with lot of rocks.” Jim Green, NASA Director.
7.
Einstein’s Quantum Statistics:
The
scientifically advanced Germans have long been considered to be some of the
world’s most ardent Indologists.
“It
[The Upanishads] is the most satisfying and elevating reading which is possible
in the world; it has been the solace of my life and will be the solace of my
death.” Arthur Schopenhauer.
Prominent
German genii from Albert Einstein to the Nazi scientists and inventors who
later migrated to the United States or USSR, were eager students of Indian
texts such as the remarkably advanced Upanishads. Such texts were often
referenced during the 20th Century race to create nuclear technology, space
rockets, jet engines and even mind control technologies, all of which are
examined in India’s ancient texts.
“India
- the land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for
a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity,
radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the
Vedas.” Wheeler Wilcox.
Like many
Indian inventors before him, the 20th Century Bengali scientist Satyendra Nath
Bose is one of modern science’s unheralded heroes. His work provided the
foundations for quantum statistics, which were later endorsed, developed and
published by Einstein; the 2001 Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to German
and US scientists for their study of condensates, which was in fact first
conducted by - and even named after - Bose; the widely covered ‘God Particle’,
the Higgs-Boson, is deservedly known to be attributed to Peter Higgs, the
British genius behind the Higgs particle. The other, less well known half of
the Higgs-Boson is named yet again after Bose, for his ground-breaking
contributions to particle physics.
“Gravitation
was known to the Indians before the birth of Newton. The system of blood
circulation was discovered by them centuries before Harvey was heard of.” P.
Johnstone.
8.
Radio/Wireless Communication:
Guglielmo
Marconi has for long been credited as the inventor of wireless radio
communication. He subsequently received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for
contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.
The first
public demonstration of the use of radio waves for communication, however, was
made by an Indian scientist, Jagadish Chandra Bose. Bose first demonstrated the
use of radio in Calcutta, in 1895, two years before a similar demonstration by
Marconi in England. More than a century after the feat, Bose has been belatedly
credited for his achievement.
Bose’s
revolutionary demonstration forms the foundation of the technology used in
mobile telephony, radars, satellite communication, radios, television
broadcast, WiFi, remote controls and countless other applications that play a
central role in our daily lives.
“The
inventor (J.C. Bose) has transmitted signals to a distance of nearly a mile and
herein lies the first and obvious and exceedingly valuable application of this
new theoretical marvel.” The Daily Chronicle, England, 1896.
9.
The ‘Zero’ (0):
Little
needs to be written about the ‘zero’, one of the most important inventions of
all time. This mathematical digit and concept also has a direct link to the
ancient philosophy of ‘nothingness’, and is one of many examples of the
intermeshing of science and mathematics with spirituality and philosophy in
ancient India.
"In
the whole history of mathematics, there has been no more revolutionary step
than the one which India made when they invented zero.” Lancelot Hogben.
Other
critical branches of mathematics such as Calculus, attributed to Isaac Newton
and Gottfried Leibniz, were developed to an almost identical formula by Indian
mathematicians, hundreds of years before Newton & Leibniz’s findings.
Similarly, the Pythagorean-theorem had been developed in India a century before
an almost identical revelation in Greece.
“The
study of mathematics in the West has long been characterized by a certain
ethnocentric bias, a bias which most often manifests not in explicit racism,
but in a tendency toward undermining or eliding the real contributions made by
non-Western civilizations. The debt owed by the West to other civilizations,
and to India in particular, go back to the earliest epoch of the “Western”
scientific tradition, the age of the classical Greeks, and continued up until
the dawn of the modern era, the renaissance, when Europe was awakening from its
dark ages...
Due to
the legacy of colonialism, the exploitation of which was ideologically
justified through a doctrine of racial superiority, the contributions of
non-European civilizations were often ignored, or, as George Ghevarughese
Joseph argued, even distorted, in that they were often misattributed as
European.” Dr. David Gray.
10.
Complex Hydraulic Engineering:
Since the
time of the Indus Valley civilisation over 5,000 years ago, and until the onset
of the European colonial era in the recent past, India had created and
sustained a vast and highly advanced network of canals, along with intricate
irrigation, water management and sewage systems. These sewage systems were so
advanced that they were designed to automatically self-clear systems blockages,
as well as account for smell and odour. The world’s first flush toilets were
also in use in India over 3,000 years ago, and were a feature of most homes in
the Indus Valley Civilisation - the largest ancient civilisation in the world.
According
to American author of historical revisionism, David Hatcher Childress, ancient
India’s plumbing-sewage systems were so sophisticated that they are still
superior to those of many developing countries today. Large public baths were
also in existence in the Indus Valley Civilisation, thousands of years before
the creation of similar Roman baths.
"A
wonder to modern-day researchers, the cities [were] highly developed and
advanced. A remarkable early example of city planning." David Hatcher
Childress.
A system of
canals similar to those created by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 19th Century
- although infinitely larger and more complex - existed in India for thousands
of years, and was the lifeblood of what was, for the majority of recorded human
history until the colonial era, the world’s largest economy.
Edmund
Burke, a prominent British supporter of American revolutionaries and the
philosophical father of the modern Conservative party, repeatedly condemned the
damage that British dominion had done to India, and specifically pointed to the
callous ruination of painstakingly built Indian reservoir systems which had
succeeded for thousands of years in keeping dry regions fertile, and India’s
people self sufficient, nourished, and prosperous.
“In the
happier times of India, a number almost incredible of reservoirs have been made
in chosen places throughout the whole country. There cannot be in the Carnatic
and Tanjore [alone] fewer than ten thousand of these reservoirs of the larger
and middling dimensions.” Edmund Burke.
11.
Medicine:
From an
advanced understanding of the human nervous system, muscles and organs, to the
use of vaccination techniques; from an almost infinite collection of naturally
sourced drugs to the employment of holistic preventative medicine; and from a
focus on fortifying immunity to mastery of the concepts of digestion and
metabolism, ancient Indians have shaped the very foundations of modern medicine
and healthcare.
“Indian
medicine dealt with the whole area of the science. Much attention was devoted
to hygiene, to the regimen of the body, and to diet.
Arabic
medicine was founded on the translations from the Sanskrit treatise, made by
command of the Kaliphs of Baghdad, 750-960 AD. European medicine, down to the
17th Century, was based upon the Arabic; and the name of the Indian physician
Charaka repeatedly occurs in the Latin translations.” Sir William Hunter,
British Historian.
Contrary to
popular misconceptions, many of the herbs and spices used in Indian cuisine
were not merely added to preserve or flavour food, but instead to effortless
combine preventative medicine with everyday sustenance. According to the
timeless Indian system of medicine, Ayurveda, it is actually considered
irresponsible and representative of a poor lifestyle to even have to resort to
medicine, with preventative natural medicine, i.e. herbs and spices, ingested
through daily meals being the preferred option. More than 2,000 years ago, the
principal contributor to Ayurveda articulated:
“It is
more important to prevent the occurrence of disease than to seek a cure.”
Acharya Charaka, the ‘Father of Medicine’.
12.
Surgery: The concepts,
operative methodologies and specialised tools of surgery that were used in
India more than 2,000 years ago and first postulated during an even earlier
Vedic period, and are still being developed in 21st Century Europe.
From
plastic surgery that is similar in technique and approach to its modern
manifestations, to highly developed midwifery, and from usage of anaesthesia to
the employment of advanced childcare techniques, these much studied ancient
Indian skills again form the foundation of much of our modern knowledge of
surgery.
Under the
Buddhist Emperor Asoka, ancient India also built a vast network of animal
hospitals in which specialised veterinary surgery was also common.
“The
surgery of the ancient Indian physicians was bold and skilful. A special branch
of surgery was dedicated to rhinoplasty or operations for improving deformed
ears, noses and forming new ones, which European surgeons have borrowed.” Sir
William Hunter.
13.
Religious Tolerance: Whilst
Buddhism has historically sought to seek converts through peaceful persuasion,
and whilst Indian religions do accept conversions to their faith, none of
India’s indigenous faiths have a history of forceful conversions, and are
instead identified by their pluralistic nature.
“It is
an undoubted fact that in India, religions and philosophical thinkers were able
to enjoy perfect, nearly absolute freedom for a long period. The freedom of
thought in ancient India was so considerable as to find no parallel in the West
before the most recent age.” Max Weber, German Sociologist.
Ironically,
Hinduism and Buddhism have still succeeded spectacularly in spreading their
message from India to vast swathes of the Far East, Indonesia to Japan, and
from Thailand to China.
“India
conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having
to send a single soldier across her border”. Hu Shih, Philosopher & Former
Chinese Ambassador to the United States.
This
non-proselytising disposition is central to the broader religious tolerance
that defines Indian culture, as well as the avowedly secular character of
modern India (in India, ‘secular’ means tolerant of all religions, as opposed
to the European definition of non-religious). The current Prime Minister of a
predominantly Hindu nation of 1.2 billion people, for instance, is from the
minority Sikh community, which forms only 2% of the population; India’s Chief
of the Air Staff is a Christian (2.3%); the three most prominent film stars in
India’s iconic film industry - and the revered recent President of India,
Professor A.P.J. Abdul Kalam - are all Muslims (14.6%); one of the world’s most
prominent businessmen, Rata Tata, is an Indian Parsi (0.006%).
Historically,
India has also been a long-standing refuge for persecuted minorities, with
Zoroastrian Iranians (referred to as Parsis) and Jewish communities in
particular having fled other parts of the world to make India a home when other
major powers pursued systematic campaigns of discrimination and anti-Semitism,
if not outright persecution, against them.
“The
Bene Israel flourished for 2,400 years in a tolerant land that has never known
anti-Semitism, and were successful in all aspects of the socio-economic and
cultural life of the people of the region.” Avotaynu (the Jewish genealogical
magazine).
14.
Nonviolence:
More a
civilisational contribution than a ‘discovery’, the active promotion of
kindness and strict nonviolence as a rudiment of life spans the entirety of
India’s known history, from the ancient concepts of ‘Ahimsa’, to Mahatma
Gandhi’s policy of ‘Satyagraha’ (insistence on truth). It forms a core of the
Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh traditions, encompasses words as well as
physical actions, and extends beyond humans to animals and the environment.
Unlike most
great powers, past and present, India is unique in its long-standing history of
not having precipitated military invasions of foreign territories. This is in
spite of India having been the world’s most pre-eminent economic power for the
majority of recorded human history.
“India
will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit
and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings.” Will Durant, American
Historian.
15.
Gender Equality: Another
civilisational contribution, India, by the deplorably low standards of mankind,
and of men in particular, yet again set early standards for humanity in the
advancement of the rights of women.
Gender
equality was a cornerstone of ancient Hindu texts and life, with women
possessing joint ownership of property rights with men, and, inconceivably for
the time, being allowed to divorce. The ancient institution of ‘Swayamvara’ was
a practice whereby a potential bride chose a husband from a congregation of
suitors whose aim was to win her over. ‘Swayam’ in Sanskrit means self and
‘vara’ means choice or desire.
The ancient
Kama Sutra is a highly evolved (even by today’s standards) guide to harmonious
relationships, family life, love, intimacy and gracious co-existence. Contrary
to popular Western perceptions of the text being a ‘sex manual’, the Kama Sutra
also postulates physical, spiritual and mental equality between both sexes, and
is derived from one of the core pillars of Hindu philosophy, ‘kama’, which
means enjoyment or passion. It was written during the era of barbarian
invasions in Europe, and approximately 1,500 years before similar wisdom became
freely acceptable in modern Britain.
My own
faith, Sikhism, insists that any person irrespective of age or gender can lead
prayer, community activity or even an entire army based on merit alone.
Consequently, Guru Harkrishan became the eighth Guru of Sikhism as a five year
old child, and many young girls and boys have been known to conduct prayers at
Sikh temples.
A number of
matriarchal communities, in which descent and inheritance is traced through
maternal lineage, have existed in India for thousands of years. Matrilineal
communities in modern India include the Nair, Bunt and Khasi communities. Khasi
women are still known to marry multiple husbands, which has resulted in a male
rights movement amongst Khasi men.
Threats to
the relatively advanced rights of women in India initially came during the
later Vedic age via texts such as the Smritis, which encouraged misogyny. They
were further embedded through the imposition of seclusive policies such as the
‘pardah’ (veil) imposed by the Moghuls, and were additionally entrenched by the
imposition of Victorian value systems and policies during colonial rule, which
led to a rapid and marked decline in the status of Indian women in the modern
era. I have often stated that the re-emergence of 21st Century India will not
and cannot be complete by virtue of economic success or scientific prowess
alone, but instead through the re-assertion of the primacy of women throughout
Indian society, as per the best traditions of a much stifled indigenous
culture.
“India
of the Vedas entertained a respect for women amounting to worship. Here is a
civilization, which places the woman on a level with the man and gives her an
equal place in the family and in society.” Louis Jaccoliot, French Author.
*Abhaey
Singh is the Chairman of Kauzala, and the President of the Indian Debating
Union. He is best known for his talks on India, and his popular rap video ‘Talk
It Out - Debaters’ Rhapsody‘ which promotes civilised debate.
