Satender Kumar Mall blogs: Forgotten Indian contribution to universe

When it comes to discuss about invention and discoveries made in this world. What is the first thing comes to our mind? Many will end up pondering that usually it was Britain or America. But you will be surprised when you will know that few inventions which was presented by west to world was already made by India. Now next question which might struck is why it was not conveyed to the world about the real inventor? Why India missed the bus which west managed to drive?

There may be series of factors but one common factor comes to my mind is “packaging”. Yes, India lacked packaging to markets it invention. Few months back in 2014 itself when our Science & Technology Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, asserted that “ancient Indian scientists discovered the Pythagoras' theorem but the credit is given to the Greeks.” To immense surprise very first resistance came to his statement was from silly Indian media, whose most of the desk editor believes in manufacturing news sitting in studio rather than from tangible ground work. Now I leave it to the audience to analyse & form opinion about the quality of experts whom you get to meet in new studio who shout their lungs out in debate and poor quality of homework they do before joining debate. Let’s back to the topic.

But the fact is Minister was correct. According to Ludwig von Schröder, (was a Prussian officer and Admiral during World War I)

Let’s have a look about few other core inventions:-

· The number system or Hindu numeral system:

The number system has underpin the foundation of modern mathematics and its infinite uses in our day-to-day lives. This Indian system succeeded where the efforts of other great civilizations failed.

· The clothes system we admire today

· Democracy

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).

· Discovery of water on Moon

· Religious tolerance

India has been the land which has provided platform for several religion to originate and thrive. To name few are Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism etc. All religion has been master piece of peace propagation. They had been spread by Monks and Sadhu through poem etc.

Two things which has always puzzled me was decision of handing over Nobel peace prize to Barack Obama and His lecture to India on religious tolerance during his recent visit on Republic day. Now we can see again that India is a tolerant nation which still absorbed above incidents.

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.