SOA In Bhubaneswar To Work On Indian Knowledge System, Induct In Education System

Bhubaneswar: The time has come to focus on the Indian Knowledge System (IKS), developed by scholars over centuries, and make it part of public discourse, professed two eminent academicians said at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA), a Deemed to be University, here on Saturday.

“IKS offers an alternative paradigm and it must be brought to the mainstream academia,” Prof. Anuradha Choudry, Humanities and Social Sciences professor, IIT-Kharagpur, said.

Prof. Choudry and Prof. Richa Chopra, former Founding Head-in charge, Department of Contemplative and Behaviourial Sciences, Sri Sri University, were interacting with SOA’s top brass at a meeting to discuss induction of IKS in the education system.

Prof. Choudry observed that India had been carrying an academic legacy for nearly 200 years, which implied that non-Western societies had hardly any knowledge to offer as they had little or no regard for Indian knowledge.

“The question is, how do we allow our youth to get the awareness back?” Prof. Choudry said.

Prof. Choudry said the New Education Policy 2020, advocated curricular integration of essential subjects, skills and capacities, focused on knowledge from ancient India and its contribution to the modern society, its successes and challenges and a clear sense of India’s future aspirations with regard to areas like education, health and environment in an accurate and scientific manner throughout the school curriculum wherever relevant.

SOA, Prof. Chopra suggested, could adopt an Odisha specific approach in this context and set up a Centre for IKS to locate the missing links in different disciplines and find out what was happening in the yesteryears while providing research scope to foreign students in IKS.

Prof. Choudry further said the New Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) has advocated curricular integration of essential subjects, skills and capacities, focus on knowledge from ancient India and its contribution to the modern society, its successes and challenges and a sense of India’s future aspirations in areas like education, health and environment in an accurate and scientific manner throughout the school curriculum, wherever relevant.

She suggested that SOA could adopt an Odisha-specific approach in this context and set up a Centre for IKS to trace missing links in different disciplines and provide research scope to foreign students.

The SOA Centre for Preservation, Propagation and Restoration of Ancient Culture and Heritage of India (PPRACHIN) — an initiative to address critical issues of conservation — has plans to set up a Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems.

The meeting, chaired by SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, was attended by, among others, SOA Advisory Board Chairman Prof. Damodar Acharya, academician and SOA’s Chief Consultant Prof. R.P. Mohanty, Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof. P.K.Nanda, Controller of Examination Prof. Manjula Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare) Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das and Deans of different faculties.