India News | BJP MP Moves Resolution in RS to Set Up Research Foundations to Revive Ancient Indian Knowledge

New Delhi, Mar 25 (PTI) BJP MP Rakesh Sinha moved a resolution in Rajya Sabha on Friday, urging to establish research foundations at state and district level to revive the ancient Indian knowledge tradition.

The resolution, moved during the private member's business hours, suggested that these new institutes be built on the lines of the National Research Foundation established under the New Education Policy.

Also Read | Infinix Smart 6 Plus With 5,000mAh Battery Launched.

The resolution suggested to make it mandatory for all universities and colleges of the country to collect information about the local culture, various streams of knowledge and other information.

It also proposed to provide options to students of all disciplines to join this research in part-time mode and give them a diploma or degree for this work.

Also Read | Supertech Declared Bankrupt by NCLT, Fate of Over 25,000 Homebuyers' Lays Hanging.

It has also suggested to grant national recognition to traditions pertaining to art, literature, culture, discussions and festivals which have been existing for hundreds of years.

While moving the resolution on the floor of the house, Sinha said India is an ancient civilisation which has developed through thousands of years of civilizational journey, and built a knowledge tradition that has been renowned for its excellence in all spheres of human life, from philosophy to science, and from agriculture to the arts.

According to him, the Indian knowledge tradition had to face neglect due to the long years of colonial slavery as the colonial culture tried to create a sense of inferiority towards it.

“Indian knowledge tradition was destroyed by the western education system introduced by Lord Macaulay during the colonial period, which aimed to alienate Indians from their knowledge tradition," he said, adding even Mahatma Gandhi, in his speech in 1931, summed it up as "Beautiful tree perished".

While starting a debate over the resolution, Trinamool Congress member Jawhar Sircar said he fully agrees with Sinha that "we must all take pride in the achievements of India".

"He has spoken a lot of good things and I complement him," he said, adding, "We cannot turn wheels of the history. They were exploiters. They tried to captivate our minds, there is no doubt about it. They have changed our mindset and we require readjustments."

However, he also said ancient India and Indian Knowledge traditions are two different things. He mentioned the brilliance achieved in physics, astronomy and surgeries.

Sircar said that Indian knowledge has an obsessive urge to retain selective memory and not to retain much of its history.

"Samrat Ashok is a pillar of our ancient period and was wiped off from India history and not a single textbook mentioned about him for centuries after centuries until he was rediscovered in 1837 in the Asiatic Society Kolkata," he said.

India also had several lost monuments such as Sarnath, Sanchi, Ajanta which were later rediscovered. "We have also forgotten the Harappan Civilisation," he said, adding, "We have great amnesia."

"If you are going to set up any research commission or committee, then go into why we did lose out on such a brilliant achievement," he said.

"When you talk of universities and brilliance of learning for centuries after centuries, two and half millennia, it was centred around only one caste. I am sorry to say, would you like to go one caste. It was not a knowledge network widespread," he said.

The knowledge was not disseminated and was kept and retained by one caste, he said.

It was a constriction of knowledge, he added.

"There were inherent flaws which prevented this glorious amount of knowledge from transferring itself from material glory and to material prosperity," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)