SF Bay Area Based, Indic Studies Foundation Announced a Series of Annual Seminars and Workshops to Address the Issue of Distorted History of India

SF Bay area based Indic Studies Foundation announced a series of annual seminars and workshops to address the issue of distorted history of India. Its president Dr. Kosla Vepa stated that "freedom is a natural desire among all humans, and India's history needs to be freed from its colonial past on the same footing as India's political freedom was attained sixty years ago." Due to imperial imperatives the colonial powers in India contrived a false history of India in general, and completely mangled its chronology in particular. There is a need to correct the historical narrative of India, that needs to be done from an Indian perspective and by historians and scholars whose professionalism is complete and who are not influenced either by an alien ideology or a domestic political motive.

Pleasanton,CA (PRWEB) October 21, 2007 -- SF Bay area based Indic Studies Foundation announced a series of annual seminars and workshops to address the issue of distorted history of India. Its president Dr. Kosla Vepa stated that "freedom is a natural desire among all humans, and India's history needs to be freed from its colonial past on the same footing as India's political freedom was attained sixty years ago."

Due to imperial imperatives the colonial powers in India contrived a false history of India in general, and completely mangled its chronology in particular. There is a need to correct the historical narrative of India, that needs to be done from an Indian perspective and by historians and scholars whose professionalism is complete and who are not influenced either by an alien ideology or a domestic political motive.

Further, there is a need to investigate and measure the socio-cultural consequences of youths learning contrived history during their formative years resulting in self-alienation and hatred towards their own cultural background. An overall assessment of the cultural damage caused to the society by contrived history needs to be made.

Consequently, it is imperative for the civil society and its plethora of stakeholders to come together, and develop and execute a plan of effective remediation in order to decolonize the discipline of History once and for all.

The Foundation will undertake a series of seminars annually with an exclusive focus on Indic history to specifically research the distorted history, investigate its consequences, assess its consequences, and remedy the situation by facilitating impartial/professional research into Indic history, and in addition will conduct programs to correct the history in the academia, media and in public perception.

As a first step towards the process of decolonization of history, Indic Studies Foundation hosted an International Seminar on Chronology of India in Dallas, TX, starting Friday, Oct. 12 and ending Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007.

The overall goal of the seminar was to increase awareness of the importance of learning the accurate History of India. The seminar fulfilled the following aims:

1. Identify key distinguishing characteristics and dates of the Indic civilization.

The following key events were identified

• The dating of the Veda
• The dating of the Mahabharata war to serve as a sheet anchor for the History of India
• The dating of the Birth of the Buddha
• The dating of the coronation of Chandragupta Maurya
• The dating of Adi Sankara
• The dating of the Sulva Sutras
• The dating of Panini
• The dating of the Satapatha Brahmana and Yajnavalkya

• The inherent contradictions of the Aryan Invasion Theory by the mythic and yet to be identified Aryan race
• The insistence that Indic astronomy, geometry and mathematics was not autochthonous to India but was borrowed from the Greek or the Babylonians
• The origin of the Brahmi script is a victim of the 'anywhere but India' syndrome
• Devaluation and denigration of the extent of the ancient Indic contribution to Mathematics and Astronomy
• Dating of the Mahabharata
• Dating of the Satapatha Brahmana
• Dating of the Veda
• Dating of the Vedanga Jyotisha
• Dating of the Sulva sutras
• The beginning of the Vikrama era
• The dating of the Buddha
• The dating of the Arthashastra
• The dating of Chandragupta Maurya
• The dating of Panini's Ashtadhyayi and consequentially the dating of Panini himself
• The dating of Aryabhata

3. Propose methodology and criteria to evaluate the accuracy of the
current or future proposed narratives

We feel that all available approaches (epigraphic, numismateic, archaeological etc should be utilized to decipher the fascinating narrative of ancient Indian History including the verification of astronomical events as recounted in the Epics (Itihaasa) , Samhitas, Brahmanas and Puranas or archaeo-astronomy as it is now referred to.

The Foundation will make available presentations at the conference soo that scholars and researchers can eventually reconstruct a true Chronology keeping the aforementioned aims in mind.

The Foundation also calls upon the civil society -- parents, teachers,
journalists and other stakeholders to attend the follow-up workshop to develop a strategic plan of corrections in History and remediation of the negative impact of contrived history on the youth.

The Foundation is committed to devising and executing plans

• that will focus awareness on the antiquity, diversity, intellectual vibrancy, the logical rigor and ontological scope of Indic civilization, the profound contributions it has made to many spheres of activity of humanity.
• comprehend the nature and breadth of adversarial theologies which seek to malign the Indic ethos, dispel lacunae and misconceptions in the understanding of Indic traditions in India and the Western hemisphere, as exemplified by the case of the California Text Book Misrepresentation of Ancient India in 2005/2006