The Indic Mathematical Tradition 6000 BCE To ?

[acharya]

Article on Indian mathematics by a Brit . He talks about giving credit where it is due.



http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Proj...index.html



Conclusions



http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Proj.../Ch10.html

I wish to conclude initially by simply saying that the work of Indian mathematicians has been severely neglected by western historians, although the situation is improving somewhat. What I primarily wished to tackle was to answer two questions, firstly, why have Indian works been neglected, that is, what appears to have been the motivations and aims of scholars who have contributed to the Eurocentric view of mathematical history. This leads to the secondary question, why should this neglect be considered a great injustice.

To summarise, the main reasons for the neglect of Indian mathematics seem to be religious, cultural and psychological. Primarily it is because of an ideological choice. R Rashed mentions a concept of modernism vs. tradition. Furthermore Indian mathematics is criticised because it lacks rigour and is only interested in practical aims (which we know to be incorrect). Ultimately it is fundamentally important for historians to be neutral, (that includes Indian historians who may go too far the 'other way') and this has not always been the case, and indeed seems to still persist in some quarters.

In terms of consequences of the Eurocentric stance, it has undoubtedly resulted in a cultural divide and 'angered' non-Europeans scholars. There is an unhealthy air of European superiority, which is potentially quite politically dangerous, and scientifically unproductive. In order to maximise our knowledge of mathematics we must recognise many more nations as being able to provide valuable input, this statement is also relevant to past works. Eurocentrism has led to an historical 'imbalance', which basically means scholars are not presenting an accurate version of the history of the subject, which I view as unacceptable. [size="6"]Furthermore, it is vital to point out that European colonisation of India most certainly had an extremely negative effect on the progress of indigenous Indian science[/size]