Humour
And This Chap is Prime Minister of a Country?
Narendra Modi and Hindu Science
MASEEH RAHMAN [The Guardian]
Hindu fundamentalists and extremists have long propagated their belief that many discoveries of modern science and technology were known to the people of ancient India.
But now for the first time an Indian Prime Minister has endorsed these claims, maintaining that cosmetic surgery and reproductive genetics were practiced thousands of years ago.
As proof, Narendra Modi gave the examples of the warrior Karna from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata and of the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha.
“We can feel proud of what our country achieved in medical science at one point of time,” the Prime Minister of India told a gathering of doctors and other professionals at a hospital in Mumbai on Saturday. “We all read about Karna in the Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realise that the Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his mother’s womb. This means that genetic science was present at that time. That is why Karna could be born outside his mother’s womb.”
Modi went on: “We worship Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery.”
While much of Modi’s speech was devoted to how to improve healthcare facilities in modern India, he also dwelt on ancient India’s “capabilities” in several fields.
“There must be many areas in which our ancestors made big contributions,” he said. “Some of these are well recognised. If we talk about space science, our ancestors had, at some point, displayed great strengths in space science. What people like Aryabhata had said centuries ago is being recognised by science today. What I mean to say is that we are a country which had these capabilities. We need to regain these.”
This is not the first time that Modi has publicly articulated such ideas. But he did so earlier as Chief Minister of Gujarat state, and not as Prime Minister. He also wrote the foreword to a book for school students in Gujarat which maintains, among other things, that the Hindu God Rama flew the first aeroplane and that stem cell technology was known in ancient India.
Modi’s claims at the Mumbai hospital initially went unreported in the Indian media, except on the website rediff.com.
But on Monday night (October 27, 2014) Headlines Today TV talk show host Karan Thapar focused on it in his primetime programme, with opposition politicians criticising Modi. The speech has also been posted on the Prime Minister’s official website.
No Indian scientist has come forward as yet to challenge him.
[Courtesy: The Guardian. Edited for sikhchic.com]
October 29, 2014
Conversation about this article
1: Bishram Goenka (Noida, India), October 29, 2014, 8:50 AM.
This beats (or does it?) the previous bufoon who was also our Prime Minister -- Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- who in an interview with the TIME Magazine boasted that he drank a glass of his own urine every day. Ancient Hindu remedy, he said! I kid you not.
2: Hena Kaur (Philadelphia, USA), October 29, 2014, 8:53 AM.
Your country deserves you, Mr Modi.
3: Pritam Singh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), October 29, 2014, 8:57 AM.
The Rob Ford of India, this man is ... I wonder what he puts in his chai every day. Narendra Modi, I mean. [I already know what Ford drinks!]
4: Gregory Rees (London, United Kingdom), October 29, 2014, 9:00 AM.
You're a bit of an idiot, Mr Modi.
5: Vishwanath Mishra (New Delhi, India), October 29, 2014, 9:22 AM.
And we can validly lay claim to the fact and proudly proclaim to the world that we have now managed to invent the Perfect Idiot.
6: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), October 29, 2014, 11:05 AM.
I find it amazing that rather than pointing to real people such as Sushruta who did practice advance medicine in ancient India, this moron points to mythological figures and makes nonsensical and absurd claims.
7: Waryam Singh (Los Angeles, California, USA), October 29, 2014, 12:30 PM.
The traits of a leader chosen by a people say it all about the people themselves. And Modi is no exception. He exemplifies the very dolts who have voted him to power and actually believe he'll take them anywhere but down the drain.
8: Rup Singh (Canada), October 29, 2014, 1:30 PM.
This is simply amazing. They were flying planes, doing plastic surgery, and had stem cell technology, all this thousands of years ago! But their scientists failed to see or recognize that human flesh and blood is the same in all, a 'great' 'civilization' (notice, both words are in quotes!) still treats millions of its own as untouchables. Animals and stones are worshiped in temples but certain human beings are not even allowed in. It's sad to see that many Sikhs are going along with some those shallow brahmanical, karmic rituals. Some sub-groups even subscribe to the Hindu mythology by taking it literally. Sikhs have a choice to see the Light and contemplate on Gurbani or close their eyes and minds and live in a downward spiral of darkness.
9: Harvinder Singh (London, United Kingdom), October 29, 2014, 1:45 PM.
Narendra Modi also penned his limited 'wisdom' on the merits and virtues of the Hindu practice of imposing manual scavenging -- collection of human waste -- on certain so-called 'low' castes. This publication was swiftly withdrawn before the recent general election to dupe the Dalit electorate. We hear about one blunder, then another, then another, without the lemmings realizing that there are too many of them to be accounted for by random one-off sets of circumstances but that they must instead have a common origin. The Geeta that Modi brandishes, is indeed the Mother of all these brilliant ideas. What are the chances of outing these blunders as massive scandals in Modi's 'Make in India' scam?' If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it just may be a duck ... but this duck has the propensity for great evil and is wobbling along.
10: G C Singh (USA), October 29, 2014, 4:47 PM.
Modi forgot to mention that the science of anthropology was also invented in ancient Hindu India. According to the Rig Veda and the most enlightened writings of Manu, the Brahmin came from God's head, the Kshatriya from his arms, the Vaishya his thighs and the Sudra his feet. The Hindu Untouchables do not figure in the human scheme, and are therefore sub-human and polluted.
11: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), October 29, 2014, 6:44 PM.
The Vedic scientists have been even more advanced than disclosed here. Remember when they declared their intention to beat America's first step on the moon by landing on the Sun! When told that it could be rather hot, they said: "That's alright, we plan to travel at night".
12: R Singh (Canada), October 29, 2014, 7:37 PM.
Why on earth will a "god" worshiped by Mr Modi need human intervention in the first place? That too by fitting an elephant head on a human body (which, incidentally, is described in mythology as the result of an error). Is he admitting that all these gods are created by human scientists? If so, then why not worship those great vedic scientists?
13: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), October 29, 2014, 8:33 PM.
In the UK, The Times has had articles about Narendra Modi, the new Prime minister of India, and they have been ridiculing the bizarre statements made about Hindu 'advances' in science and technology! When his own people in their hundreds of millions have the worst poverty, corruption and human rights abuses in the whole world! It was a Sikh economist, who later became Prime minister, that gave India some respect and standing in the world but that too disappeared when this crypto-fascist Hindu fundamentalist came to power on a right wing Hindu agenda!
14: Raj (Canada), October 29, 2014, 10:59 PM.
What Modi is saying is quite mild compare to some other claims, and the internet is full of this tom foolery. Here are some of the most outrageous and sacriligous: Vatican's St. Peter's square is designed in the shape of a yoni (vagina) out of which the Shiv Linga (penis) came out. They claim it by showing the design from an elevation. Also, that the very name of the Vatican comes from the sanskrit 'vatika' meaning front yard. Next, that Shiva is imprisoned in Kaaba of Mecca by Bibi Fatima. Everyday, he begs for Ganga water for purification. Last, but not the least, Jesus CHrist's actual name was Krishna. The westerners couldn't pronounce it, so they call him Christ. There's lot more, but listing it out here is just wasting time. Like they say in Urdu, "iteda-e-ishq hai rota hai kya? Aagey aagey dakhye hota hai kya?"
15: Bikramjit Singh (London, United Kingdom), October 30, 2014, 2:51 AM.
Modi reminds me of the character from "Goodness Gracious Me". Everything is Indian! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln5QgeCL1fs