Edition 1: India – Impact of History on Future

Talk to an average “educated” Indian, and tell him that “A Sadhu from Varanasi told me that our Yoga cures Schizophrenia”, and in all likelihood not just that he won’t believe it, but he will even probably laugh at it.

Now tell the same person that, “A recent research at MIT proves that our Yoga cures Schizophrenia”, and he will exclaim, “Wow!” as if he personally witnessed the entire research and will accept it without any further questions.

The MORAL

No nation or society can achieve anything worth without having an accurate knowledge of their history, of their past, of what their ancestors achieved.

Lack of historical knowledge leads to a lack of identity, absence of national pride, misinformation about the past, lack of motivation – all these in turn build up an inferiority complex which results in people aping what is projected to be superior (the western society), which in turn leads to the nation becoming a follower and not a leader.

This is exactly what happened to India ever since the British introduced English education filled with inaccurate representation of history which suited their colonial interests. This English education replaced the traditional Indian education in Sanskrit and other native languages of India which used to teach us about the real history of Indian civilization.

This is also the reason today why most Indians refuse to take at face value when another Indian or an Indian institute talks about great things from ancient India even after showing ample proof, but readily accept the same if it comes from an western institute or a western scientist.

So the need of the hour is to bring back the real history of India in mainstream education, the achievements of our ancestors, the contributions of our civilization to modern science, technology and society – and that will in turn motivate the masses to become leaders again from being the present blind followers of a supposedly superior civilization.

At present what we see in India is mere parroting and mimicking and aping of the west. But that is no creativity or innovation, and so obviously does not bring out the full potential of the Indian nation. “You have it in your genes” can work wonders in aiding out of the box thinking.