New Delhi: The professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, who conceptualized the 2022 calendar from the institute, responded to his critics by saying that the critics have a “colonial hangover”.
The IIT Kharagpur Calendar for 2022 challenges the ‘Aryan Invasion Theory’ of ancient Indian history through various pieces of evidence “rooted in the Vedas” and seeks to dismantle ‘colonial’ and “Western teachings”.
The concept and research for the calendar, titled ‘Recovering the Foundations of Indian Knowledge Systems’, has been done by Professor Joy Sen, Chairman, Center of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems, IIT Kharagpur. Sen is also the chairman of the Nehru Science and Technology Museum, IIT Kharagpur.
The Indian Knowledge System (IKS) Center was established recently with the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. announcement of It’s in November 2020
Purpose of IKS Center To encourage research in areas such as Indian history, advanced archaeological exploration, Indian language system, Indian system of geometry and mathematics, cosmology, positional astronomy, and “Indian constructions of ecology and working ethics”.
The calendar says it is a “joint production” of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur’s Center of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems and the Nehru Museum of Science and Technology.
Read also: Modi government is considering to link Vedic texts with modern knowledge system, will fund research
divided opinion on twitter
Images from the 2022 calendar of IIT Kharagpur attracted both criticism and praise on Twitter.
@prasanto said, “Extraordinary. IIT-Kharagpur releases 2022 calendar full of pseudoscience mumbo-jumbo, ostensibly to ‘dismantle the Aryan invasion theory’. Whatever with real science and research Hua, which IIT-Kh and its alumni have done so much?”
Extraordinary. IIT-Kharagpur has released 2022 calendar which is full of pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo, apparently to ‘dismantle the Aryan invasion theory’. Whatever happened to the actual science and research, which IIT-Kh and its alumni have done so much? pic.twitter.com/YgZhkgAtwQ
— PKR | makeup | رشانتو (@prasanto) December 25, 2021
@parrysingh replied to the above tweet saying, “OMG! This is completely childish and unscientific. Has it been confirmed that it has been released by IIT-K?”
Hey, God! This is completely childish and unscientific. Has it been confirmed that it has been released by IIT-K?
— Parminder Singh (@parrysingh) December 25, 2021
Another user, @Indian10000000, replied to the first tweet mentioned here saying, “There are so many horrific mistakes here that I don’t know where to start….”
There are so many dazzling mistakes here that I don’t know where to start
The prototype of Shiva was found in the Indus Valley but it predates the Aryans. Aryans did not invade, but there was migration
Maybe that’s what “qualifies” them with – blurs out their logic!
— Katyusha (@Indian10000000) December 26, 2021
However, other users on Twitter welcomed the calendar.
@bhramangatha tweeted pictures of the calendar saying, “Amazing calendar from IIT Kharagpur. View Full PDF Online”
Amazing Calendar of IIT Kharagpur. View Full PDF Online pic.twitter.com/V5MpVrqiml
– I. Kuni Ek (@bhramangtha) December 26, 2021
Another user, @karunagopal1 called the calendar “extraordinary” and “awesome”.
How many of you have seen this extraordinary calendar 2022 of IIT Kharagpur? This is awesome pic.twitter.com/tuYnF1DcZ8
— karuna gopal (@karuna gopal1) December 25, 2021
‘Challenging Western Teachings’
Sen told ThePrint that in the past 24 hours there have been more than a hundred requests for copies of the 2022 calendar from educational institutions and individuals around the world, from the Bay Area of California to Japan.
“This indicates that people around the world welcome the concept of the calendar”, Sen said.
“The people who are criticizing the 2022 calendar are those who have a colonial hangover. The material presented in the calendar hits right at the core of the colonial mindset which has been coded in our minds through western ideas presented in textbooks,” he said.
“Western teachings have long misinterpreted and corrupted the teachings of our Vedas, and now faced with a calendar challenging those Western teachings is difficult for some to digest,” Sen continued.
Sen further said that the purpose of the calendar was to prove that there was no Aryan invasion. The calendar does so on the basis of extracts from “Deep Ecology on Species and Genetics”.
The calendar is designed so that each of the 12 months details 12 pieces of evidence to challenge the Aryan invasion theory.
“In the first eight proofs of the 2022 calendar, you see the cosmic and ecological sciences of space, time and causality as embedded in the Vedas. The last four portray the mismanagement of that science by the colonial-minded (and how) that led to the deaths in World War I through a super Aryan-Caucasus race theory,” explained Sen.
“In the Vedas, the word ‘Aryan’ means a person with a heart of assimilation and benevolence. But, in colonial terms, ‘Aryan’ means one with racial superiority and aggression,” Sen said.
“The two definitions do not match, as the calendar states with 12 proofs. This has been carefully avoided by critics. The fallacy of the Aryan invasion myth is now a matter of rejection and rejection. It is the need of the hour and the 2022 IKS, IITKGP ( This is what the IIT Kharagpur) calendar does.
(Edited by Saikat Niyogi)
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