Our history is being suppressed

Sahir Shah

None of the history books taught in our schools show awareness of people like Madhava[^] or the existence of such a School of Mathematics[^]. Our people made significant contributions to Mathematics, but it was being wilfully ignored until recently.

Christian Graus

'otto von drunkencoder' and you're indian ? That's brilliant. The link says that the contributions of Madhava have only come to light over the last 25 years - could it just be that the books in school are old, either themselves, or reprints of books written long ago ?

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Sahir Shah

Christian Graus wrote:

'otto von drunkencoder' and you're indian ? That's brilliant.

You seem to have led a rather sheltered life. It is not impossible for Indians to have names which don't sound Indian to you. Have a look at this[^]. Some of these guys had names like Engelbert Humperdinck, Boris Karloff etc. We even had a (kind of) Rajah called Walter Reinhardt Sombre in the eighteenth century :rolleyes:

Christian Graus

Otto von Drunkencoder wrote:

You seem to have led a rather sheltered life. It is not impossible for Indians to have names which don't sound Indian to you

I don't think you understood my meaning. It seems that this site mostly gets the bottom level of the Indian IT industry posting in our programming forums. I just meant it was nice to hear from someone with a sense of humour, and a desire to be part of the overall community. Most of the Indians here who display those qualities ( such as Nish and Rama ) are no longer in India. I'm more interested in your thoughts on my other comment. Out of date school books is a common problem, I know it's a big issue in the US.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Sahir Shah

While on this topic I would like to mention one guy who is said to be responsible for our air victory in 1971. Looks more or less like Nish or me but was called Malcolm Shirley Dundas Wollen[^] he was an Air Marshal in the Indian Airforce.

Christian Graus

Shirley was a mans name ?

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Sahir Shah

Christian Graus wrote:

Out of date school books is a common problem, I know it's a big issue in the US.

It is not exactly out of date school books. Recently I saw a BBC documentary on the development of Maths in China, India and other asian countries where they said European historians largely ignored such contributions. Text books were more or less derived from those writings. I am from Kerala. I had never heard of Madhava until I stumbled on that article on the University of St. Andrews website a few years ago. I guess a lot of people from the state don't know about this, I would be surprised if Nish has heard of Madhava or the Kerala School of Mathematics before this.

Sahir Shah

Christian Graus wrote:

Shirley was a mans name ?

Yeah, I know. But the man's no sissy, he is a war hero :-\

Christian Graus

Have you read the book 1421 ? The Chinese basically invented *everything* according to this guy. He makes a powerful case. It seems possible that the West had a more warlike culture, not the brightest ideas. He even argues that Leonardo Da Vinci was a great artist who copied Chinese manuscripts. Now, he may be off on some of it, but the first book, 1421, he builds a powerful case for the Chinese being behind the first to navigate the whole world.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Christian Graus

I have no doubt. It's possible that Shirley used to work both ways.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Lost User

Surely you can't be serious? I am, and stop calling me Shirley!

Christian Graus

Are you a member of the country club ?

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Oakman

Christian Graus wrote:

It's possible that Shirley used to work both ways

"Before the publication of the novel "Shirley" by Charlotte Brontë in 1849 Shirley was an uncommon, but distinctly male name and would have been a very unusual name for a woman." (From Wikipedia, but don't tell Zep :~ )

Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.

Sahir Shah

No, I haven't read 1421. I just read the Wikipedia article[^] on it. It seems this guy Gavine Menzies got carried away and made some unsubstantiated claims. Nevertheless, everyone knows about the huge contributions made by the Chinese to science. I never suspected my home state had anything to be proud of other than beautiful scenery, coconut oil, lungi and the world's greatest drinkers.

Lost User

Very true. There was (died a few years back) a British Heavyweight Wrestler called Shirley Crabtree. Better known (in UK) as Big Daddy. [^]. (Opps, another wikipedia link!)

Christian Graus

Yeah, his first book was a big success, and I thought his second book was both boring and probably went too far. You could be right, although I generally regarded that the Muslim world had contributed great things to science, especially maths and astrology. If I'd stopped to think about it, I'd have assumed the Indian world was involved there, too.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

leckey 0

I also thought that suspicious.

Back in the blog beatch! http://CraptasticNation.blogspot.com/[^]

leckey 0

Guess what? Most US textbooks have inaccuracies or are just plain wrong, or cover up the truth. Like Helen Keller...we all know her to have overcome her disabilities. Did you know she was a raving socialist? No, you don't. We want everyone, including every President even if they served less than a year or hated African-Americans (um, Wilson)we just cover it up. G-d forbid we give any credit to another country!

Back in the blog beatch! http://CraptasticNation.blogspot.com/[^]

Christian Graus

leckey wrote:

Did you know she was a raving socialist?

Yes, I did :P

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

leckey 0

Ask how many Americans know that, much less learned that in school!

Back in the blog beatch! http://CraptasticNation.blogspot.com/[^]