International Conference on Indian History
International Conference on Indian history Jan 9-11,2009, India International Centre, New Delhi When, Where, Who , What and Why ICIH2009 Call for Papers for details see http://indicethos.org/HistDistortions.html The Fundamental Postulates behind the Convening of the conference It is taken as largely axiomatic in the study of the History of the Indic peoples , that the civilization that remains extant has been brought into the area by migrating races such as the Aryans , and in fact some would argue, that such a statement holds also for the so called Dravidians of India. According to such a narrative everything that was worth preserving has been handed down to us over the centuries by migrations, within the last 3 1/2 millennia, into the subcontinent, from somewhere else. Such a viewpoint was first expressed by Hegel who took the view , subsequently internalized by Indics after being told ad nauseum by a whole slew of British historians from James Mills to the latest Oxford and Cambridge Histories that India was always a derivative civilization. It is not our contention that all historians have taken such a jaundiced view of the Indic past. There has been a school of historians and philosophers who have taken a Civilizational view of the Indic past, among whom we count Arnold Toynbee, Will Durant, Karl Potter, Fernand Braudel and Samuel Huntington, who while they may agree with the chronology of the Occidental Historians of India, disagree profoundly with the notion that India is a derivative civilization It is also true that the history that is taught the children of India today is vastly at variance with the puranic accounts handed down to us over several millennia. It is to state it without any embellishments, a revised history that is completely at odds with the traditional history of India. Such a state of affairs persists even today, and most schoolchildren everywhere in the world are taught the erroneous chronology and that India lacks historical agency The premise of this conference is that the current narration of the History of the Indic people is seriously and fatally flawed both with respect to the chronology as well as in content Philosophy behind Conference 1. In order to understand the civilization, one must mine the Civilizational knowledge that accompanies it , the fundamental pramANas, the metaknowledge that forms the underpinning of the civilization. Even so great an intellect as Amartya Sen fell prey to the temptation of assuming that the schism in the occident between religion and science operates in India too. But in India there never was such a schism (until we were told by the west that such a schism is unavoidable in every society). If Aryabhata was not believed by his successors, on his remarks on the rotation of the earth, it is primarily because they did not have sufficient data convince themselves he was right and not because of religious dogma as Amartya Sen would have you believe. In any event, these are the issues we should be studying. We need to devote sometime in the conference to issues relating to Civilizational knowledge 2. I make no apologies for my choice of the mathematical sciences as a Canonical example of the Civilizational knowledge of the ancient Indians. My interest in the history of mathematics is of long standing and I came to Indian history through the circuitous route of studying Greek Mythology and the Greek contributions to mathematics. It also happens to be the most mature of human endeavors and an area where the Indics have made a signal contribution. Many Indian philosophers were also excellent mathematicians and to use a word more prevalent today were 'polymaths'. Many classical indian historians shy away from commenting on the mathematics of the ancients, because they are not comfortable in a mathematical milieu. and not because it should not be studied in a holistic manner. This however does not mean that we exclude other Civilizational hallmarks of the Indic peoples 3. The Occidental has tried his best to prevent us from seeing the Indic civilization in its totality, by denying us the autocthonous origin of various disciplines. He was extraordinarily vehement in defining the new chronology and was careful that no discovery should be attributed to India prior to the Golden age of Greece. And soon it became an axiom of Indic thought that we had borrowed everything from the Greeks and Indians today are caught in the web of a circular argument, where we assume the answer to the question 'when did the Indics discover this . Typical of such Indian writers (and almost no Indian writer has challenged the basic steel frame of the Indian chronology of Vincent smith) was Gaurang Nath Banerjee who wrote about Hellenism in Ancient India, which was obviously written to placate occidental sensibilities in 1920. There is another reason why we should rely heavily on the works of Indic astronomers, apart from telling us what they knew, they were quite precise in dating their own period and by making observations of the sky enabled us to date an event with remarkable precision. 4.The connection between the strategic environment that the Indic civilization faces today and our history and the costly mistakes which result in a false reading of history, need not be belabored to this audience and hence my attempt at getting the strategic community in the same room as the historians. Typical of such decisions that our Government has made is the abandonment of Tibet to the clutches of the Asian Superpower Goals of the conference We cannot clean the Aegean stables even in 3 days, but what we can do is to spark the initiative of investigators, researchers, historians , think tank consultants, and yes even Autodidacts into setting the stage for a process whereby the framework for the Indian chronology is more in synchronization with the latest discoveries as well as encourage the use of new technologies in deciphering the Indic past while at the same time establishing a Forensic science that is devoted to such efforts. We can also educate the parents as consumers to demand a more authentic treatment of History in school text books. Hence the conception . The conference has basically two objectives. One is to increase awareness of strategic thinking and to show that a strategic approach based on long term objectives is key to creating an environment for a civilization in which the future is less threatening and offers greater and better choices. The second objective is to increase awareness of the importance of learning the accurate history of India and its impact on the future choices that a country can and should make in its vital interest. Major themes of Conference One major but unique complication in deciphering the Indic past is that one must make the distinction between the chronology of an event and the date at which it was first chronicled. This is because the chronicling of the Indic past is itself an event of considerable antiquity Mainly Historical Themes Is it a valid premise to assume that the current history is seriously mangled and distorted? We believe an objective appraisal of Indian history as exemplified in the presentations at HEC2007 came down heavily in favor of such a proposition, but we will keep an open mind and hear those who would argue against such a thesis Identify key distinguishing characteristics and dates of the Indic civilization of relevance to the current strategic environment facing India Indicate those areas of Indian history which are egregiously in error and the resulting impact on the manner in which India is viewed in the world today The British Colonial period Historiography of Indian Arts Provide examples of policy based on an erroneous interpretation of History Propose methodology and criteria to evaluate the accuracy of the current or future proposed narratives of Indic history Discuss the present day nonchalance towards history and rekindle the interest in History Discuss the Recognition and Revival of traditional knowledge sytems in Republican India We know the history of a country affects the economic choices it makes, but how does the economic well being - or lack thereof -- in a country or the economic choices it makes affect the history of the civilization. In the seventeenth century, as during most of the history during the Christian era, the Indian GDP according to Angus Madison, comprised 25% of the world on a PPP basis. Examine the causes of the rapid deterioration in the economic well being of the subcontinent beginning after the Battle of Plassey, resulting in the First of the Great Famines of Bengal in 1777, and the death by slow starvation of 1/3rd of the population of Bengal. Discuss the potential impact of the new politically correct dogma , unique to India which goes under the name of Secularism and its impact on the historiography of India and the discipline of History, and more importantly the caricaturization of the Hindu as a Saffron Fascist Identity and Politics interact not only in history writing, but also in current affairs. How much of the identity politics today, including so called subaltern studies is a consequence of the massive distortion and reinventing of caste by the colonial overlord ? Did the 1971 war and Pokhran I cause the large increase in funding of South Asian studies Suggested List of theme titles 1. Perceptions of 'History' (with special reference to Indian history) 2. History and the Historian: Judging history versus pleading history 3. Colonial-Missionary distortions in Indian history 4. Impact of post-modernism and post-structuralism on contemporary Indian historiography 5. Post-Colonial distortions 6. Impact of history writing on identities and geopolitics today 7. Current status of the debate on Vedic-Harappan Identity 8. Ongoing debate on Indian history text-books in India and abroad 9. History of Indian Ocean Community 10. History of Indian Diaspora. 11.Women in Ancient India The Occident and The Geopolitics of India Discuss the extent to which the current History of India is an Occidentalist Revision India and the US form the two largest English speaking regions in the world and the 2 largest Democracies In the past the relationship has been nevertheless a difficult one. what is the future of this relationship Discuss the extent of India's contribution to technology and the sciences in the past and the consequences for Indian policy makers in dealing with other civilizations and nation states. Discuss possible transfers of technology from India to Greece and later to Europe, and the impact it may have had on the resurgence of Europe, such as the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. For instance there is ample circumstantial evidence that the Gregorian calendar was fixed in 1582 after the Jesuits learned about sidereal measurements and the accurate trigonometric tables from the Jyotish in Kerala. Discuss the potential Indic origin of the realist imperative (e.g. John Meerscheimer and Hans Morgenthau) of the Occidental in his formulation of foreign policy (It is our contention that the imperative has been a significant strand in the Indic strategic weltanschauung, ever since the time of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, . The efficacy with which he plied his craft is attested to by the fact that he was equally trusted by both parties in the war Discuss the implications of the Sarasvati Sindhu civilization on the posture of Pakistan, if any, and the relationship between India and Pakistan Encourage and Report on independent study of Mesoamerica by Indics to assess whether the Occidental has applied a similar Eurocentric approach to the historical narrative of the Incas and the Aztecs Discuss the various ways in which the Occidental has caricatured the Indic such as for example by reinventing the caste system as the prime determinant of the Indic civilization. Discuss the manner in which Indian Literary and Scientific historiography has been characterized by the Occident and the almost total ignorance of the works of such stalwarts as Bhartrihari among the youth of India today. The Goan inquisition and its impact on Indian society, especially in the Konkan area 1. Distortions in Indian History during Various eras POSSIBLE SESSIONS 1. The era of the Ancients and the beginning of River valley Civilizations (7000 BCE to 4000 BCE) Key event The battle of the Ten Kings (the Dasarajna battle) Key Paradigm The composition of the Vedic literature 2. The era of Geographical Expansion and consolidation of Civilizational values (from the ancients up to 1000 CE) Key event Development of Darshanas, Astronomy, development of numerical symbols and the place value system (including the Brahmana era, the Sutra era, and the Upanishadic era) 3. The Era of conflicting Paradigms (1000 CE to 17th Century) Key event Islam asserts its presence in the Indian Subcontinent 4. The Indic Renaissance (16th century to present) and the Age of Colonization Stimulus Response Debate: The Policies of the Colonial State and the Indian Response Key Event The Impoverishment and malnourishment of India 5. The Republic and the Occidentalist Caricature of the Indic(1947 to present) Key event Independence is not accompanied by independence of thought 2.Geopolitical and Strategic Issues confronting India today and in the future Realism and the Realist imperative today and its roots in Indic tradition Geopolitics of US, India and China 3.The development of the Arts, Science and Technology beginning in the ancient era and the possible transmission to the west The Indic Mathematical Tradition Negation of Indias contribution to the Sciences and to Linguistics Was the Calculus invented in India Historiography of India Arts
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