Is Science Western in Origin?

by C.K. Raju

On stock Western history, science originated among the Greeks, and then developed in post-renaissance Europe. This story was fabricated in three phases.

First, during the Crusades, scientific knowledge from across the world, in captured Arabic books, was given a theologically-correct origin by claiming it was all transmitted from the Greeks. The key cases of Euclid (geometry) and Claudius Ptolemy (astronomy)— both concocted figures — are used to illustrate this process.

Second, during the Inquisition, world scientific knowledge was again assigned a theologically-correct origin by claiming it was not transmitted from others, but was “independently rediscovered” by Europeans. The cases of Copernicus and Newton (calculus) illustrate this process of “revolution by rediscovery”.

Third, the appropriated knowledge was reinterpreted and aligned to post-Crusade theology. Colonial and racist historians exploited this, arguing that the (theologically) “correct” version of scientific knowledge (geometry, calculus, etc.) existed only in Europe.

These processes of appropriation continue to this day.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, India

60 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

C. K. Raju holds a masters in mathematics from Mumbai, followed by a PhD from the Indian Statistical Institute. He taught mathematics for several years at Pune University before moving on to help build India's first parallel supercomputer, Param. After a fellowship at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, and the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, he resumed university teaching, and is currently a Distinguished Professor. He has proposed many radical new ideas related to time, quantum mechanics, quantum computing and the history and philosophy of mathematics, and calculus. He has written critically acclaimed books on physics (Time: Towards a Consistent Theory, Kluwer, 1994), history and philosophy of mathematics (Cultural Foundations of Mathematics, Pearson Longman, 2007), on time at the interface of science, religion and ethics (The Eleven Pictures of Time, Sage, 2003), and on the history of science (Is Science Western in Origin?, Multiversity and Citizens International, Penang, 2009). For a full list of his books, see http://ckraju.net. He straddles various fields, and was an editor of the Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research and curently advices other scholarly journals. He has also built computer software for industrial and educational use. Volume 5 of his collected papers contains his scholarly articles on mathematics and religion. In his "5-day course on calculus", he has demonstrated that mathematics can be made very easy by eliminating the post-Crusade theology in it. Watch out for more of his forthcoming books, especially "Euclid and Jesus".

Reviews

[Ashish Iyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who thinks Mathematics and Science is origin in Greek or Rome should read this book, all these knowledge were flown from India to West via Arabs or Persian. History was Hellenized during the Crusades. Knowledge was theologically sanitized during the Inquisition, and the accompanying religious intolerance in the rest of Europe. “Pagan” knowledge was again appropriated by Europeans who dared not acknowledge it. The appropriated knowledge was reinterpreted to make also the contents theologically correct. Racist and colonial historians built on this legacy of glorifying themselves and belittling others. For this purpose, they used (and continue to use) double standards of evidence to claim “independent rediscovery” in one direction, and transmission in the other direction.

As Rajiv Malhotra rightly said, "The history of India is not others coming in and invading, giving us things and changing us, but also how Indian knowledge has been exported, how the history of India is present also in the history of Europe and China and so on".

This book is short but contained lot of heavy information.

[Ishani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Systematic borrowing and accretive re-writing of knowledge have been the aim of the so called wise west.

This book is quite technical for common people to understand but inspire of this it is somehow able to drive successfully argue and drive home the real facts about the actual origin of science.

Very short and crisp read to start on this topic.

[Anand Rai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing but very short book.

[Ramakrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a Very few pages author exposed the west's fradulent activities

Many human rights activists Marxist troll indians for being poor scientific temper but this book gives punches to those who say our ancestors was brainless

[Anirudh Karnick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm now keen to read Raju's 'The Cultural Foundations of Mathematics' and 'Eleven Pictures of Time', preferably along with a student of physics/mathematics. Raju could come across as a bitter postcolonial - I think he has every reason to be bitter. (More on Raju later.)

[Krishna Dinamani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read book who thinks Maths is origin in Greek/Rome, Dr Raju have clarified and proved that lot of knowledge in Science and Math have flowed from Indian sub continent to west.

Its eye opener for Mathematicians, Scientists or Indian to understand the knowledge flow

[Rohith Ajjampur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice short book providing an overview of how the west came to plagiarise and make its own the knowledge systems and sciences from the orient, mostly from India. This and more such books from the author should be part of the standard curriculum of schools.

[Abhinav · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read

The book is a must read for anyone trained as an engineer or scientist as it tells how the great forgery was done.

[Lakhan Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read book

I was not thinking about how one can use science and maths as a tool for their supremacists agenda being an engineer.
This book has opened a new way of thinking for me

[Ayushman Madhukar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't tell if its right wing propaganda or a post colonial text.

[Aayush Kucheria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Super interesting premise but a badly written book