Correspondence: Good fences make good neighbours

Abstract

There has been quite a debate during the last several weeks about science in ancient India. On the one hand, unverifiable claims are being made that many of modern-day ideas, discoveries and inventions in science (e.g. stem cell biology) were already known and practised centuries and even millennia ago in India. On the other, outright dismissal of even claims where written material can be checked (Baudhayana and Apastambha Sutras in mathematics) has the danger of throwing the baby with the bathwater. The debate is worryingly turning partisan and political, and it is time that we take a perspective view of the issue. Every civilization has been enriched over time through imagination, individual and collective thought and creativity. These have led to the blossoming of art and culture, mythology and symbolism, epics and belief systems, which have given it identity. They have also led to developments and achievements in logic, analytical thought, science and technology, which have offered human society improvement in daily life. Cogito ergo sum.