‘Before Newton, mantras defined laws of motion’
India’s junior education minister Satyapal Singh said that mantras codified the ‘laws of motion’ much before they were framed by Issac Newton and suggested that Vaastu compliance of educational buildings was important for learning, according to the minutes of the meeting of the government’s highest advisory body for policymaking in education.
Singh was speaking at a January 15 and 16 meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) attended by several Union and education ministers of most of states.
“There are mantras which codified ‘laws of motion’ much before it was discovered by the Newton. Hence it is essential that traditional knowledge must be incorporated in our curriculum,” the minutes of the meeting quoted Singh, a former Mumbai police commissioner, as saying.
When approached by journalists on Wednesday at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) where he gave a lecture on the National Science Day, Singh refused to take any questions on the issue.
In January, Singh had said that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was “scientifically wrong”. “Since the man is seen on Earth, he has always been a man,” he had said, adding that our ancestors had not mentioned anywhere that they saw an ape turn into a man.
Suggestions at the meeting from other state ministers
NEW DELHI: There are mantras which codified ‘laws of motion’ much before it was discovered by Newton. Hence it is essential that traditional knowledge must be incorporated in our curriculum.
SATYAPAL SINGH, junior education minister
included replacing “Yes, sir” in classrooms with “Jai Hind” and singing the national anthem and hoisting the national flag in schools across the country.
One minister suggested syllabuses be remodelled towards “culture-based education”.
Kunwar Vijay Shah, the minister of school education from MP, said: “The practice of saying ‘yes sir/ ma’am’ during attendance should be replaced with Jai Hind.” Mahesh Sharma,MoS (independent charge) for culture environment, forests and climate change, said that value- and culture-based education was the need of the hour.