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India – a world leader? Indians have produced many significant and successful insights, inventions and thoughts known to humanity. Vedic philosophy, the Upanishads Ayurveda,Yoga, the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, Sanskrit, Tamil, zero, the number system, algebra, arithmetic, astronomy, astrology, temple architecture, metallurgy and chess are just a few examples of India's prodigious contribution. More than a thousand years before Copernicus, 23-year old Aryabhata wrote in his famous Aryabhatia that the earth rotates round its axis. The genius Ramanujan reinvented European mathematics working on his own. Mahatma Gandhi humbled a colonial power through nonviolence. The Gurukul System Much of Indian discovery and learning can be attributed to the metaphysical
"gurukul" system of education, which encouraged observation, questioning,
dialogue, investigation, respect for teachers and the environment. Despite
a tradition of excellence and innovation Indian innovation and invention
has fallen behind many parts of the world. Recent events, including
the growth of the Indian IT industry and India's achievements in space
and atomic energy suggest that the tide is turning. Agastya International
Foundation believes that engaging India's neglected 700 million rural
citizens is a necessary condition for India to reemerge as a world leader
in ideas and action. This can happen by transforming the existing education
system into one that fosters creativity and encourages experimentation.
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