A scientist at NASA's Ames Research Centre in California has launched an online petition demanding that a lecture on 'Ancient Indian Aviation Technology' to be delivered at the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai in January be cancelled as it brings into question the "integrity of the scientific process".
Dr Ram Prasad Gandhiraman's petition, already signed by 220 scientists and academicians around the world, places its opposition to the lecture in the larger context of the increasing attempts in India to mix mythology with science, and cites Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling Lord Ganesha a product of ancient India's unparalleled knowledge of plastic surgery as an example.
Mumbai Mirror was first to report how the organisers of the 102nd Indian Science Congress, to be held between January 3 and 7 at Mumbai University's Kalina campus, had slipped in Vedic mythology about aviation into the Science Congress' schedule, which is otherwise packed with talks on ribosomes, resistance to antibiotics and the origin of life, and discourses on controlling the cell cycle, all delivered by some of the finest scientific minds, including six Nobel laureates.
The lecture on the 'Ancient Indian Aviation Technology' is to be delivered by Captain Anand J Bodas and Ameya Jadhav.1
…..
The conference has been the subject of controversy all week. More than 200 scientists signed an online petition opposing Sunday's scheduled lecture, called “'Ancient Indian Aviation Technology," saying it amounted to “giving a scientific platform for a pseudo-science talk.”
"If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying not only the science, but also our children," the petition said.
On Twitter, the hashtag #Vedic trended Sunday, but many joked about the claims. too.
If planes were invented by ancient India, rockets were invented by old Britain. Earliest prototypes were flying brooms of witches. — IbneBattuta (@ibnebattuta) January 4, 2015
Ancient India sure had planes. Infact some of them are still flying...called Air India — JaiHind (@ajith27) January 4, 2015
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the conference on Saturday and urged the nation’s scientists to “explore the mysteries of science.” But Modi also has made similar claims earlier. In October, he mixed mythology with science when he said that the elephant-trunked, pot-bellied Hindu god Ganesha got his head because of the presence of plastic surgeons in ancient India. 2
- 1. Source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/Pseudo-science-must-not-figure-in-Indian-Science-Congress/articleshow/45698353.cms
- 2. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/04/indians-invented-planes-7000-years-ago-and-other-startling-claims-at-the-science-congress/