PRIDE OF INDIA

Albert Einstein: “We owe a lot to the Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery count have been made.”

Mark Twain: “India is the cradle of the human race, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition. Most valuable and the most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only”.

Lancelot Hogben: In his book Mathematics for millions: “There has been no more revolutionary contribution than the one which the Hindus (Indians) made when they Invented Zero”.

Arnold Toynbee: The world famous historian said: “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a western beginning will have and Indian ending. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history (Nuclear age) the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian Way.”

Invention of Calendar Making: Discovery of measurement of time and discovery nomenclature of days , months and years and invention of calendar making was made in India. In his book Surya Sidhnta Latadeva (505AD) divided the year into 12 months. Seven planets of the solar system effects the earth’s atmosphere and their names were added to the seven days of the week, which was accepted all over the world.

Discovery of Theory of Gravitation: In his book Sidhanta shiromani Bhaskaracharya mentions about force of attraction resembling gravity, discovered centuries later by Newton. (Jewish Encyclopedia).

Invention of Iron Products in 3000BC: The word AYAS occurs in the four Vedas which denotes iron. Ashoka pillar at Mehraulli, New Delhi and another iron pillar in Karnataka stand proof of India’s metallurgical heritage ( a study published in the magazine, The current Science)

Invention of Copper, Bronze and Zinc: The copper and bronze artifacts dates back to Indus valley civilization (2500BC). According to treatise Rasaratnakar, zinc was made in around 50 BC at Zawar in Rajasthan (India).

Invention of Decimal System: According to Dr. Thomas Arya, a German writer “The weights used by the Indus Valley (2500BC) followed a Binary system and measurement based on the decimal system.” Pierre Laplace said “How Grateful we should be to Hindus who discovered the great decimal system.”

Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. ( a report in forbes magazine, July 1987).

Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software ( a report in forbes magazine, July 1987).

Bhaskaracharya (5^th century AD) calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the western astronomers. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun was mentioned: 365.258756484 days.

The value of ‘pi’ was first calculated by Budhayana and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this long before the European mathematicians.

The Suruta Samhita, a medical text, details 650 types of drugs, 300 operations, 42 surgical procedures and 121 types of instruments, according to records. The earliest documentation of Indian medicine is found in Hindu scripts of the Vedas compiled between 3,000 and 1000 BC. (report in Pakistani Paper).

PAST BUILDS FUTURE

Swami Vivekananda

                   "Children of India, i am here to speak to you today about some practical things, and my object is reminding you about the glories of the past is simply this. Many times have i been told that looking into the past only degenerates and leads to nothing, and that we should took to the future. Look back, therefore, as far as you can, drink deep of the eternal fountains that are behind, and after that, look forward, march forward and make india brighter, greater, much higher than she ever was. Our ancestors were great. We must first recall that, We must learn the elements of our beings, the blood that courses in our veins; we must have faith in that blood and what it did in the past; and out of that faith and consciousness of past greatness, we must build an India yet greater than what she has been."

PAST THAT MAKES US PROUD

By Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

            "The past is ever with us, and all that we are and that we have, comes form the past. We are its products and we live immersed in it. Not to understand and feel it as something living with us is not to understand the present. To combine it with the present and extend it to the future, to break from it where it cannot be united, to make all this the pulsating and vibrating material for thought and action-that is life.....It is true that the past is unaffected by the storms and upheavals of the present, but it maintains its dignity and repose and tempts the troubled spirit and tortured mind to seek shelter in its vaulted catacombs. There is peace and security and one may even sense a spiritual quality. With the past, the present and the future are inextricably inter-twined. It is to the benefit of those to recall past history who have got a past which makes us proud and hopeful for the future."

TEACHERS OF CHINA

Hu Shih, Ex Ambassador of China to U.S.A.

         "India conquered and dominated China culturally for twenty centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border. This cultural conquest was never imposed by India on her neighbors. It was all the result of voluntary searching, voluntary learning, voluntary pilgrimage and voluntary acceptance on the part of China."

India 'synthesised invaders and made them Indian'

Hon Robertson Young, the envoy of Great Britain

       "enjoyed everything about India."......the "extraordinary heritage' and 'sense of history' that permeates life here and the 'rich cultural tapestry' with the 'ability to synthesise invaders and their cultures and make them Indian." At a time, he asid when "my ancesttors were going around in skins" India was immensely culturally developed entity, and the "sense of historical coninuity" has been both remarkable and unique......"The city upon city upon city" and the sense of history in Delhi itself were equally remarkable......"the remarkable sense of history that most indians have, and the abi,llity to absorb and take the best out of all cultures."

Extract from a report in 'The Statesman', New Delhi, October 13, 2003