VP Dhankhar Calls for Revival of Indian Knowledge Systems

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 10th July: Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday asserted that India’s emergence as a global power must be accompanied by a parallel rise in its intellectual and cultural depth, urging the nation to reclaim and reinvigorate its ancient knowledge systems as a vital component of enduring national strength.

Addressing the inaugural Annual Conference on Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) in New Delhi, the Vice-President said, “The strength of a nation lies in the originality of its thought, the timelessness of its values, and the resilience of its intellectual traditions. That is the soft power that endures.”

Calling India a “civilizational continuum”, Dhankhar stressed that the country is not merely a post-colonial construct but a flowing river of consciousness, inquiry, and learning. He strongly criticised the historical dismissal of indigenous knowledge systems, blaming both colonial and post-independence narratives for suppressing India’s intellectual heritage.

“Indigenous insights were dismissed as relics of the primitive past,” he noted. “There was an architecture of erasure and decimation. What is more tragic is that the selective remembrance continued even after independence. Western constructs were paraded as universal truths.”

He traced two key interludes that interrupted India’s intellectual legacy—the Islamic invasions and British colonization—stating that these periods replaced sages and thinkers with clerks and record-keepers. “Grades replaced critical thinking,” Dhankhar lamented. “We stopped philosophizing and started cramming.”

Drawing attention to India’s once-flourishing centers of learning like Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikramashila, Vallabhi, and Odantapuri, he described them as global universities that attracted seekers from China, Tibet, Korea, and Persia. These were “towering citadels of knowledge,” he said, lamenting their systematic decimation.

Highlighting the need for urgent revival, the Vice-President called for the creation of digitized repositories of classical Indian texts in languages such as Sanskrit, Tamil, Pali, and Prakrit. He also advocated training programs for young scholars that blend philosophy, ethnography, computational tools, and comparative inquiry.

“A genuine Indian Knowledge System research ecosystem must honour both text and lived experience,” he stressed. “Insight emerges as much from context as it does from content.”

Quoting German scholar Max Müller, Dhankhar emphasized India’s deep contributions to philosophy and intellectual life, and urged a renewed confidence in India’s ability to offer wisdom that addresses today’s global challenges. “The wisdom of the past does not obstruct innovation—it inspires it,” he said.

He pointed to the Rigveda’s relevance in the age of astrophysics and the Charaka Samhita’s alignment with contemporary public health debates. “Spiritual insight can coexist with scientific precision,” he asserted.

“In a fractured world, systems that reflect on the individual, the cosmos, duty, and consequence become vital for shaping thoughtful, enduring responses,” he concluded.

Also present at the conference were Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, JNU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, and scholars from across India, all underscoring the importance of reviving the Indian Knowledge System as a pillar of national development.