Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar challenged the widely accepted historical fact that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Parmar said that America was not discovered by Columbus; it was founded by Indian traders. He said this during a press briefing on Friday.
Parmar said, “Indian traders were conducting business in America in the early 11th century. They even built a Sun Temple in America. Based on this, we could claim that Indian traders discovered America; it existed before Columbus, and our people were trading there”.
On the outrage regarding the government’s order to include RSS’s books in the universities library, Parmar said Suresh Soni’s book, India’s glorious scientific tradition, mentions that cells were discovered in India 900 years before the Common Era. If this fact is taught to students, why do Rahul Gandhi, Jitu Patwari, and other Congress leaders have an issue with it?
Hailing the New Education Policy (NEP), he said that the work is being done on the “Bhartiya Gyan Parampara” (Indian knowledge tradition) under the NEP, and any misconceptions regarding this approach will be clarified with accurate facts. For instance, the mention of the use of batteries in torches is found in the Agastya Samhita, which dates back 900 years before Christ.
However, we were taught that a scientist named Volta invented the battery. We aim to eliminatesuch misconceptions and gather factual information, he added. Additionally, he said that the history of those who sacrificed for the country should be studied, not just the history of the Nehru family.
