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Comment by Bhilai | Hacker News Reader

> I have literally never heard of national politicians in India being anti-science.

Not anti-science per se but Indian politicians are quite famous for pseudo-scientific nonsensical statements like Mr Modi claiming that advanced surgery existed thousands of years ago when doctors sewed an Elephant's head to a God's body[1] and then claiming presence of test tube babies in ancient times[3]

On the other hand, Union Health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan claimed that Vedas had knowledge beyond Theory of Relativity[3]

BJP, the ruling party has tried to indoctrinate a bunch of nonsense like Wright brothers did not invent the airplane, it was infact ancient Indians[4].

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/indian-prime-m... [2]: https://theprint.in/science/vedic-plastic-surgery-to-test-tu... [3]: https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/science-minister-harsh-v... [4]: https://theprint.in/india/governance/in-engineering-courses-...

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India actually has a well-funded ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) and its influence has massively grown over the past decade. It is as anti-science as you get.

> Not anti-science per se but Indian politicians are quite famous for pseudo-scientific nonsensical statements like Mr Modi claiming that advanced surgery existed thousands of years ago when doctors sewed an Elephant's head to a God's body

There is evidence for plastic surgery being known in Ancient India through works of Sushruta/Charaka. Leaving apart the sewing of an elephant’s head on a human body, which was probably added for religious/mythological effect I don’t quite see what’s nonsensical here?

Seems like the "Leaving apart the sewing of an elephant's head" is the whole point the poster was making. lol

Not how I read it. OP seems to completely dismiss the possibility that some surgical techniques may have been known in Ancient India because of what I’m sure is prejudice against one or more of religion/Hinduism/speaker(Modi in this case). Like I said the story about the elephant’s head is likely mythological/religious but that doesn’t take away from the other basic facts.

“Advanced” is sort of ambiguous, so it is hard to say what the original comment is really dismissing.

Advanced surgery could hardly exist or be even close to efficient without drugs used to treat/reduce infections.

And when somebody says the thing about sewing heads nothing else that person says can really be taken seriously or be worth discussing.

OP quotes saying that Indian politicians from the current party are being anti-science, but the first link where modi talks about religious texts is trying to link it to science.

If you read further in the link he talks about Aryabhata and space science and how we need to regain those.

This is anything but anti-science Seems pretty funny to me, the reference added to say that this Indian politician is anti science is actually trying to encourage ppl to become good at science. May be he using religious based texts, but that speech in the article isn’t really anti science though.

This is a very strange comment for a Hindu nationalist to make. I thought it was well established that Shiva installed the elephant head on Ganesh's body after he rashly beheaded him before realizing he was his son. It seems very bizarre to imagine a god using a plastic surgeon to sew the head on.

It almost seems like he must be trolling.

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