I recently came across this interesting article on the invention of zero. This is one of the things that I was told (as are most Indian children) as one of the hallmarks of Indian contribution to modern society and example of our greatness. But the story as it happens is more complex than "we invented zero and therefore we rock". From Babylonia to the Mayans, there have been independent discoveries of zero either as placeholders or as numerals. I discussed this article with a friend about how this was such an enlightening idea about different civilisations. My point was, and I don't think I made it well, that there were many ancient civilisations and they all made important contributions. I say that I don't think I made myself clear, because she took that to mean that I was demeaning India's contributions. To say that Mayans used zero too was by no means to discredit Indian civilisation as useless.
There are many biases and beliefs that we hold; one of the ones that I heard growing up was that Indian civilisation was so advanced compared to the rest of the world - to paraphrase something a family member used to say, Europeans were jumping around half-naked up and down trees when Indians were writing treatises on governance. This idea, however pleasant and awesome to hold, is far from truth. Exceptionalism is infantile. We recognise it in others; America for instance with their chest-thumping rhetoric of being the greatest nation in the history of the world and we rightly make fun of them for it. But it is harder to see it in ourselves. The Lascaux caves in France for example show evidence of paintings from the paleolithic period (about 17300 years before). Venus of Hohle Fels is about 35000 years to 40000 years old. The Cuneiform tablets displayed in the Louvre show some of earliest known written language from 4th century BC (Code of Hammurabi was around 1785 BC). Egyptian Dynastic period dates back to 4th century BC (this Duck and Swimmer spoon is one of those mindblowing artifacts from antiquity).
Again, my point was not that Indians suck but that other civilisations did some good things as well. And maybe, just maybe it is not so good to judge others as somehow less "civilised". As hard as it may be to accept, we are not special.
IMHO the part of growing up is to be able to challenge our dearly held beliefs and learning of our place in the history of mankind goes a long way to update our beliefs.
There are many biases and beliefs that we hold; one of the ones that I heard growing up was that Indian civilisation was so advanced compared to the rest of the world - to paraphrase something a family member used to say, Europeans were jumping around half-naked up and down trees when Indians were writing treatises on governance. This idea, however pleasant and awesome to hold, is far from truth. Exceptionalism is infantile. We recognise it in others; America for instance with their chest-thumping rhetoric of being the greatest nation in the history of the world and we rightly make fun of them for it. But it is harder to see it in ourselves. The Lascaux caves in France for example show evidence of paintings from the paleolithic period (about 17300 years before). Venus of Hohle Fels is about 35000 years to 40000 years old. The Cuneiform tablets displayed in the Louvre show some of earliest known written language from 4th century BC (Code of Hammurabi was around 1785 BC). Egyptian Dynastic period dates back to 4th century BC (this Duck and Swimmer spoon is one of those mindblowing artifacts from antiquity).
Again, my point was not that Indians suck but that other civilisations did some good things as well. And maybe, just maybe it is not so good to judge others as somehow less "civilised". As hard as it may be to accept, we are not special.
IMHO the part of growing up is to be able to challenge our dearly held beliefs and learning of our place in the history of mankind goes a long way to update our beliefs.
