India and Indian Polity - Contribution of India to World Civilisation

Contribution of India to World Civilisation

I

1. There is a need to project India's contributions to world's civilisations so as to highlight the past, present and future of India.

2. It is also necessary to underline the need of the recovery of the ancient knowledge that flourished during the period of the Vedic culture and to show how the contemporary emphasis on science is in consonance with the Vedic culture, which was knowledge based. For what we need for moving towards the future successfully, we have to conceive of world culture of the future, which will be knowledge-based and which would be acceptable to the modern scientific mind.

II

3. The idea is not to create a museum or to organise an exhibition, but to provide living experience by employing modern technology of visual presentation of a film, which can have five dimensional effect.

4. Once the basic film is produced, it can also be cast into CD-ROM. The same can also be put in the computer with some additional features so that we can converse with the computer, put questions and receive answers.

III

5. The first part of the film should highlight Vedic culture and Indus Valley civilisation of ancient India, indicating how the reminiscences of Indus Valley civilisation bring out the state of advanced knowledge in respect of a number of sciences, arts, architecture and engineering and trade.

6. It may also be highlighted that the Vedic culture looks upon the Veda as book of wisdom and knowledge embodying a holistic vision of Man, Nature and Ultimate Reality.

IV

7. Development of a number of religions in the world can be traced to the Vedic knowledge.

8. We can even now see in the words of the founders of religions such as Buddha, Moses, Christ, Mohammed and others who have spoken in their message of the truths, which have been expounded in the Veda.

V

9. Vedic culture can be shown to have emphasised the simple fact of human life and its purity and simplicity, where one can show human beings, including prophets and incarnations, have the same origin in mother's womb and how they return to the mother earth in the dissolution of the body. This should also help to show that the human beings on the earth have inherent oneness and that they are born and leave the world without any labels of religion or race.

VI

10. In order to demonstrate that Vedic culture was knowledge-based, it may be highlighted that India made original contributions to the development of ancient astronomy, mathematics, medicine and many natural sciences. India's contributions to the arts and crafts can also be highlighted. Contribution of India to philosophy, ethics, administration and statecraft can also be displayed.

11. Special emphasis can be on the contributions made by the Upanishads to the entire orientations of India's development. It can further be shown that the words of Upanishads are to be found in all the religions of the world that developed in course of time in human civilisation.

VII

12. In tracing the history of Indian religions and also of those of other religions that developed in the world, two important features of Indian religions can be emphasised: (i) this religion did not have any fixed dogma or creed, and it assimilated numerous religions and showed how religious conflicts can be overcome by avoiding exclusivism; (ii) in Indian history, there was no conflict between religion and philosophy and religion and science.

13. It would also be salutary to show that prophets, incarnations and founders of religions have endeavoured to provide a method or law of life, which can solve the problems of the society in which they lived and flourished.

14. These religions, however, tended to be institutionalised, and evils of institutionalisation crept into religions with resultant division of camps of religions, which also got split into various sub-sects.

15. As a result, there is today a serious problem of religious conflict as witnessed in different parts of the world, Ireland, Bosnia, etc.
 

VIII

16. There is an urgent need, therefore, to recover the spirit of Vedic culture, which looks upon Nature and Man in terms of universality. Earth, water, fire, air and space have common characteristics and same kind of manifestations all over the world. One cannot speak of anyone of them as something belonging uniquely to one particular religion or to the other. Similarly, the human body and human organs function in the same way universally, and one cannot speak of the principles of life and death except in universal terms.

17. We have to discover that which is common in humanity and the element of oneness that we find in the world.

18. Today's humanity presents a spectacle of conflicts and growing violence. In this context, the message of Vedic culture comes to us with strong emphasis and enables us to transcend conflicts and to live in harmony and peace