Westernisation of Indian education has resulted in the negligence of “the philosophies and the sciences” of our ancient culture, believes author Amish Tripathi.
The writer, who is coming up with his second book — Sita: Warrior of Mithila — in the Rama series, says most of the Indians are cut off from their roots.
“Our own perspective towards the Upanishads or the incidents that are depicted in the Mahabharata is westernised. We had a few bad centuries and the unfortunate thing that has happened is the colonisation of our education system, which continued even after Independence,” Tripathi said.
The author of the Shiva trilogy believes that thorough teaching of our heritage will result in “knowledge”, “wisdom” and “liberalism”.
“We will teach Shakespeare but not Kalidas at the same time. As a result, we are unaware of the philosophies and the sciences of our ancients. We are the only country that has such a rich heritage but we do not want to learn anything from it. And to me that is what is disappointing about the elite class in the last 70 years. Our ancient culture is actually the biggest ally to liberalism. But they approached our culture with such biased eyes that they have just cut it off from our education system,” says the banker-turned-author.
SITA: WARRIOR OF MITHILA By Amish Tripathi Westland, pp. 376, Rs 249
Besides mythological novels, the 42-years old Tripathi plans to write non-fiction books on Indian philosophy. He says the short books will have examples from cricket and Bollywood for a better understanding of the different philosophical discourses.
“I have plans for some non-fiction books. Most of my philosophical discussions are with my sister. We are planning a series of philosophy books. I want to explore the philosophical roots of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,” Tripathi says.
“We want to write it in a way that it is not intimidating. Each book will have not more than 100 pages and we will try and keep the Sanskrit quotes minimal. The philosophies will be established with some modern examples like cricket or Bollywood to explain points,” he elaborates.
The author, who weaves fictional stories around mythological figures, says he does not think about facing controversies as he never speaks against the scriptures.
“If you interpret with respect then even the people who do not like the book, can sense it. I am genuinely a devotee of the Gods that I write about. I am putting liberal, modern messages in my stories like respect for women’s rights but I am not speaking against the scriptures,” he says.
