Before Pythagoras, our sages will teach mathematics, now India’s name will echo in the new NCERT books.

News India Live, Digital Desk: While studying mathematics in your childhood, did you ever have a question in your mind that why all the difficult formulas and theories were created by foreign scientists only? Has India never done anything in mathematics? If you also had this question in your mind, now children will get its answer in school books only.

Taking a very big and important step, NCERT has completely changed the mathematics book of class 7th. Now our children will not only read about Pythagoras or other foreign mathematicians, but they will also know that centuries before them, the great sages and mathematicians of India had laid the foundation of Algebra and Geometry.

Why was this big change made?

This change has been made under the New Education Policy (NEP 2020), the aim of which is to connect children with their roots, their heritage and Indian knowledge tradition. Dinesh Prasad Saklani, Director of NCERT, says that till now what was taught in our books had a glimpse of a colonial mindset. We always read that every major discovery happened in the West, whereas the truth is that the real sun of knowledge and science rose in India only.

What new will the children learn now?

In the new book children will now be taught:

• The real ‘Father of Algebra’: Children will be taught that Algebra originated in India only. Great mathematicians like Aryabhata and Brahmagupta had discovered the technique of using letters as unknown numbers centuries ago.
• Baudhayana before Pythagoras: We all have read about the Pythagorean theorem. But the new book will tell that about 300 years before him, our sage Baudhayana had written in detail about this theorem in his treatise ‘Baudhayana Sulbasutra’. Now children will also know it by the name of ‘Baudhayana-Pythagoras Theorem’.
• Journey to ‘Zero’: Now children will be told in more depth about the contribution of India, which gave the gift of ‘Zero’ to the world.

Professor V. Ravindran, who was a part of this panel, says that the purpose of these changes is not just to give bookish knowledge to children, but to create a sense of confidence and pride in them. When a child learns that the mathematics he fears originated in his own country, his attitude towards the subject will change.

This is not just a change of a chapter in the book, but it is a change of the mentality which has forced us for years to believe that we have always been dependent on the West for knowledge.