Latest news with #BharatiyaVidyaParampara
Time of India
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Scuffle during conference at JNU
New Delhi: Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday inaugurated JNU's first academic conference on Indian Knowledge Systems even as the campus continued to witness protests led by the Left-affiliated members of the students' inion. Speaking at the event, Dhankhar emphasised the importance of indigenous knowledge traditions. "Islamic invasion of India caused the first interlude in the glorious journey of Bharatiya Vidya Parampara... The British colonisation brought forth the second interlude, when Indian Knowledge System was stunted, stymied and subverted," he said, adding, "The great Bharatiya Vidya Parampara and its allied institutions were systematically drained, destructed and decimated. " JNUSU office-bearers, including president Nitish Kumar—who came in a wheelchair—tried to march towards the convention centre where Dhankhar was speaking, but were stopped midway by the university security, leading to a brief scuffle. Videos of the confrontation, including pushing and shoving, surfaced online. You Can Also Check: Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi Criticising the protest, JNU directed the security branch to submit a detailed report. "Such actions not only violate the principles of democratic expression but also tarnish the image of the university," it stated. tnn
NDTV
10-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
India's Knowledge System Was Drained During Colonial Rule: Vice President
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday described Islamic invasions and British colonial rule as "historic interludes" that disrupted the "glorious journey" of the Bharatiya Vidya Parampara (Indian Knowledge System). The Vice President made the remarks while speaking at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) during the inauguration of a three-day academic conference on Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), themed 'The Resurgence of IKS'. The conference, being held from July 10 to 12, brings together scholars and academics to explore ways of integrating traditional Indian knowledge systems-including philosophy, science, arts, and spirituality-into modern education and governance frameworks. Referring to the invasions by Turko-Afghan military general Bakhtiyar Khilji, the Vice President said, "Barbarism prevailed over civilization," adding that "instead of embracing and assimilation, there was contempt and destruction," and that the country's ancient centres of learning were destroyed. Mr Dhankhar said the conference was an effort to correct a "historic wrong" and highlighted how colonial-era education policies are still being taught. "British colonisation brought the second interlude. Institutions changed their motives-the compass was redirected. The East India Company's need for 'brown babus' replaced India's need for thinkers. Our great knowledge systems were systematically drained and destructed," he said. "India did not just teach. It welcomed, debated, exchanged, and inspired," Dhankhar said, underlining the role of Indian traditions in shaping global discourse. "At the heart of this conference lies a profound truth: India is not just a political construct; it is much beyond. It was not formed in the mid-20th century; it is a civilizational continent, a flowing river of consciousness, enquiry, and learning that has endured across millennia," he added. Urging for the digitisation of classical Indian texts, he emphasised the need for academic access and global dissemination. He said, "There is a growing need to bridge what is often seen as a divide between tradition and modernity. That divide is artificial and intellectually lazy... The wisdom of the past does not obstruct innovation-IKS enhances it." Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, who also attended the event, echoed the Vice President's sentiments about ancient Indian learning, from Ayurveda to Vedic sciences. "Our Vedic sciences, Ayurveda, philosophy, and maritime wisdom offer students a holistic, decolonised framework, blending instinct, intellect and intuition. I believe that JNU's initiative is timely and transformative. IKS must guide future learning and global wellness," he added. JNU Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit underlined the importance of intellectual discourse in shaping national identity. "Political power requires narrative power. So, intellectuals are very important, and it is the duty of higher education institutions to do it." She added that the conference aimed to produce "path-breaking" research that would form the basis for long-term academic engagement with Indian knowledge systems.
India Gazette
10-07-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
India's rise as a global power must be accompanied by its rise in cultural gravitas: Vice President Dhankhar
New Delhi [India], July 10 (ANI): India's rise as a global power must be accompanied by the rise of its intellectual and cultural gravitas, said Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday, noting that a nation's strength lies in the originality of its thought. Addressing the inaugural annual conference on the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) in Delhi, he emphasises the importance of soft power for the rise of a nation-state. 'India's rise as a global power must be accompanied by the rise of its intellectual and cultural gravitas. This is very significant as the rise without this is not lasting, and the rise without this is not in harmony with our traditions. The strength of a nation lies in the originality of its thought, the timelessness of its values, and the resilience of its intellectual traditions. That is the kind of soft power that endures, and soft power is potent in the world we live in,' Dhankhar said. Reaffirming India's identity beyond the confines of post-colonial constructs, the Vice-President observed that India is not just a political construct formed in the mid-20th century. It is a civilizational continuum--a flowing river of consciousness, inquiry, and learning that has endured. Critiquing the historical sidelining of indigenous wisdom, he said that while indigenous insights were dismissed as relics of the primitive past, it was not an error of interpretation. 'It was an architecture of erasure, destruction, and decimation. What is more tragic is that the selective remembrance continued even after independence. Western constructs were paraded as universal truths. To put it more bluntly, untruth was camouflaged as truth,' he said. 'What should have been our fundamental priority was not even on the radar. How can you not be cognizant of your core values?' he questioned. Reflecting on the historical ruptures in India's intellectual journey, the Vice-President said that the Islamic invasion of India caused the first interlude in the glorious journey of Bharatiya Vidya Parampara. 'Instead of embrace and assimilation, there was contempt and destruction. The British colonisation brought forth the second interlude, when the Indian Knowledge System was stunted, stymied, and subverted. Centres of learning changed their motives. The compass was moderated. The North Star was changed. From bearing Sages and Savants, it started producing clerks and yeomen. The needs of the East India Company to have brown babus replaced the need of the nation to have thinkers,' he said 'We stopped thinking, contemplating, writing, and philosophising. We started cramming, regurgitating, and swallowing. Grades, unfortunately, replaced critical thinking. The great Bharatiya Vidya Parampara and its allied institutions were systematically drained, destroyed, and decimated.', he mentioned. Dhankar said that long before the Universities of Europe came into being, Bharat's universities had already established themselves as thriving centres of learning. 'Our ancient land was home to luminous centres of intellectual life--Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikramashila, Vallabhi, and Odantapuri. These were the towering citadels of knowledge. Their libraries were vast oceans of wisdom, housing tens of thousands of manuscripts,' he said. He added, 'These were global universities, where seekers came from lands near and far, such as Korea, China, Tibet, and Persia. These were the spaces where the intellect of the world embraced the spirit of Bharat.' Calling for a more holistic understanding of knowledge, the Vice-President said that knowledge resides beyond manuscripts. It lives in communities, in embodied practices, in the intergenerational transmission of wisdom. 'A genuine Indian Knowledge Systems research ecosystem must honour both the written word and the lived experience--recognizing that insight emerges as much from context as it does from text,' he said. Calling for focused action to strengthen Indian Knowledge Systems, the Vice-President remarked, 'Let us therefore turn our attention to tangible action because that is the need of the hour. The creation of digitized repositories of classical Indian texts is an urgent priority covering all classical languages such as Sanskrit, Tamil, Pali, and Prakrit, to name just a few.' He added, 'These repositories should be made widely accessible, enabling scholars in India and researchers around the world to engage meaningfully with these sources. Equally essential is the development of training programs that empower young scholars with robust methodological tools, blending philosophy, computational analysis, ethnography, and comparative inquiry to deepen their engagement with the Indian knowledge system.' Quoting renowned scholar Max Muller, the Vice-President said, 'If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant--I should point to India.' 'Friends, it was nothing but the articulation of eternal truth,' the Vice-President said. Touching upon the dynamic relationship between tradition and innovation, the Vice-President stated that the wisdom of the past does not obstruct innovation--rather it inspires it. 'The metaphysical can speak to the material. Spiritual insight can coexist with scientific precision, but then you have to know what spiritual insight is.' 'The Rigveda's hymns to the cosmos can find new relevance in the age of astrophysics. The Charaka Samhita can be read alongside global debates on public health ethics,' he added. 'As we navigate a fractured world, we are stunned by global conflagration. So we are faced with a fractured world. Knowledge systems that have long reflected on the interplay between mind and matter, the individual and the cosmos, duty and consequence, become relevant and vital to shaping thoughtful, enduring responses.', he concluded. (ANI)
