A cartoon that appeared in today's New Indian Express. This clearly shows the bias of the cartoonist. Anything that is Indian is a burden whereas learning things in a western context is the "correct" way?
I will comment on Ancient Indian Mathematics because that is one area where I have made a comparative study. I will just highlight one topic in mathematics and its utility in teaching a complex topic using the works of Indian mathematicians.
Quadratic indeterminate equations (equations of the form x^2-Dy^2=1) is a topic of advanced number theory currently introduced at MSc part I because the methods used to find integer solution to these equations use the continued fractions method of Lagrange (1766). Bhaskara II (1140 CE) gave a Chakravala (cyclic) method which uses elementary algebra to solve such equations. Hermann Hankel calls the chakravala method "the finest thing achieved in the theory of numbers before Lagrange" (Kaye 1919 Pg 337). Hankel worked with great mathematicians like Mobius, Reimann, Weierstrass, and Kronecker. In fact, the impetus for Bhaskara II was provided by Brahmagupta (628 CE) in his book Brahmasputtasiddhanta where he discusses how to find infinitely many integer solutions from a given integer solution. I am not glorifying the contribution but one needs to understand that a study of Brahmagupta's work can help us introduce these topics at the high school level. How can we expect people to read these fantastic works of eminent mathematicians if the media is going to ridicule the government for introducing anything that is ancient? Whose loss is it? We need to evaluate these things and not just analyze from a political angle only.
A question that arises how can I argue that such topics can be introduced at the high school level? Simple, at Raising a Mathematician Training Program (RAMTP 2017, 2018) we introduced Quadratic Indeterminate Equations in RAMTP 2017 using Brahmagupta's approach and easily grasped by the students. In 2018, we provided students with the reading material and they self-studied the topic and solved problems without being introduced to the topic in a formal way. This helped us introduce Bhaskara's Chakravala method to find an integer solution to these equations. Thus, school students were exposed to a topic which they might have never learned and this was possible mainly because we used Brahmagupta's and Bhaskara's elementary algebra methods.
Conclusion:
1) Such cartoons only create low self-esteem among the countrymen of its nation and devoid them of an ocean of knowledge hidden in the texts written by these great ancient scholars.
2) Learning Pythagoras theorem is not glorifying the ancient Greeks.
3) If the pedagogical goals can be served in a better way by using these ancient texts, we should accept it with open arms.
4) I am only commenting on an aspect that I have researched on and abstaining from commenting on other aspects.
1) Such cartoons only create low self-esteem among the countrymen of its nation and devoid them of an ocean of knowledge hidden in the texts written by these great ancient scholars.
2) Learning Pythagoras theorem is not glorifying the ancient Greeks.
3) If the pedagogical goals can be served in a better way by using these ancient texts, we should accept it with open arms.
4) I am only commenting on an aspect that I have researched on and abstaining from commenting on other aspects.
