View source for 2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy

{{Short description|Protest against a conference presentation}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2025}}

The '''2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy''' refers to protests that occurred during the 102nd [[Indian Science Congress]] in [[Mumbai]] on 4 January 2015 when a paper claiming to prove that [[aircraft]] were invented in the [[Vedic age]] was allowed to be presented.<ref name="ControversialClaim">{{cite news|title=Ancient India Had Planes: Controversial Claim At Science Congress|url=http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ancient-india-had-planes-controversial-claim-at-science-congress-643885|access-date=25 January 2015|work=[[NDTV]]|date=5 January 2015}}</ref>

==Overview==
In December 2014, it was announced that Anand J. Bodas and his copresenter Ameya Jadhav, who claim that aircraft more advanced than today's versions existed in ancient India, would be allowed to speak at the [[Indian Science Congress]] and present a paper on aviation in the Vedic age. During an interview, he said that such aircraft were huge and could fly to other planets. He also said that those planes could fly backwards, left, or right, contrary to modern aircraft that can fly only forward.<ref name=AeroplanesInVedic>{{cite news|title=Aeroplanes in Vedic age could fly between planets: Speaker at Indian Science Congress|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/north/story/aeroplanes-vedic-age-could-fly-between-planets-speaker-indian-national-congress-232961-2014-12-26|access-date=25 January 2015|work=[[India Today]]|date=26 December 2014}}</ref><ref name=SlipVedic>{{cite news|title=Indian Science Congress organisers slip Vedic mythology about aviation into programme schedule|url=http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/Indian-Science-Congress-organisers-slip-Vedic-mythology-about-aviation-into-programme-schedule/articleshow/45643060.cms|access-date=25 January 2015|work=[[Mumbai Mirror]]|date=26 December 2015}}</ref>

Bodas, who was a principal at a pilot training school in Kerala, and Jadhav, currently a lecturer at the Swami Vivekanand International School and Junior College in Mumbai,<ref name=VirusProof>{{cite news|title=At Science Congress, Vedic aeroplanes and virus-proof suits|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/at-science-congress-vedic-aeroplanes-and-virus-proof-suits/99/|access-date=25 January 2015|work=[[The Indian Express]]|date=3 January 2015}}</ref> cited a text called [[Vaimānika Shāstra|''Vaimanika Prakaranam'']] (also called ''Vaimānika Shāstra'') as evidence. Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science studied the text in 1974, concluding that "craft is a decided impossibility" and that the Vaimānika Shāstra was written no earlier than 1904.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gandhi|first1=Divya|title=An 'ancient' treatise no older than 1904|url=http://www.thehindu.com/sunday-anchor/sunday-anchor-grounded-before-takeoff/article6775677.ece|access-date=31 January 2016|agency=The Hindu|date=January 11, 2015}}</ref> Bodas stated that modern science rejects anything that it cannot explain. He claimed that of the 500 guidelines described in the text, only 100 to 120 survive today. He attributed this loss to the passage of time, foreign rulers of India and artefacts which had been stolen from India during that time.<ref name=SlipVedic/>

The five-day conference was held at the Kalina Campus of [[Mumbai University]] starting on 3 January 2015. The paper was presented on 4 January as a part of the larger [[Academic conference|symposium]] on "Ancient Sciences Through Sanskrit".<ref name=SlipVedic/> Other papers presented in the symposium were "Engineering applications of Ancient Indian botany", "Neuroscience of yoga: understanding the process", "Advances in surgery in Ancient India" and "Scientific principles of Ancient Indian architecture and civil engineering".<ref name=VirusProof/>

==Criticism and protests==
In late December 2014, Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, a scientist at [[NASA]]'s [[Ames Research Center]], started a petition to prevent the paper from being presented at the conference. By 31 December, 220 scientists and academics had signed the petition. Gandhiraman criticised the paper as pseudo-science and said that mythology should not be mixed with science.<ref name=PseudoScience>{{cite news|title=Pseudo-science must not figure in Indian Science Congress|url=http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/Pseudo-science-must-not-figure-in-Indian-Science-Congress/articleshow/45698353.cms|access-date=25 January 2015|work=[[Mumbai Mirror]]|date=31 December 2014}}</ref>

S. M. Deshpande, a professor at the [[Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore]], who has written a paper with four others on aircraft in Sanskrit texts, said that we should not reject such claims as pseudoscience outright but examine them with intellectual curiosity. His paper, however, states that the aircraft described in the Vaimānika Shāstra text would not be capable of flying, and the text itself cannot be traced to any date before 1904.<ref name=PseudoScience/>

H.S. Mukunda, another professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, who was a co-author of the paper, criticised the organisers and said that both sides of the debate should be presented. He asked why there had been no working models made if the persons who presented the paper were convinced that they were right.<ref name=Disservice>{{cite news|title=The organisers did a disservice to science|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150112/jsp/knowhow/story_7878.jsp|access-date=4 April 2020|work=[[The Telegraph (India)]]|date=12 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611151100/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150112/jsp/knowhow/story_7878.jsp|archive-date=11 June 2015}}</ref>

[[Roddam Narasimha]], director of [[National Aerospace Laboratories]] (NAL), said that there is no credible evidence that aviation existed in ancient India. He added that the Vaimānika Shāstra text has been studied scientifically, and the consensus is that descriptions in the text are unscientific.<ref name=SlipVedic/>

Notable Indian [[astrophysicist]] and founding director of the [[Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics]] at Pune, India, [[Jayant Narlikar]] reacted to the controversy, saying that it was good to be proud of ancient Indian science, but scientists should not make claims about things they did not have [[Scientific evidence|proof]] of. He commented, "We can boast of things, but it should be restricted to what we have proof of. But we shouldn't claim things of which there is no evidence or proof, as it reduces the credibility of what our scientists have achieved in the past." 
He further asserted, "Even the West recognises the knowledge of mathematics held by Indians. If we start making outlandish claims, the scientific community of the world will not look up to us as it does now".<ref>{{cite news|title=Outlandish claims diminish respect for ancient Indian science: Narlikar|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Outlandish-claims-diminish-respect-for-ancient-Indian-science-Narlikar/articleshow/45877872.cms|access-date=2 February 2015|work=[[The Times of India]]|date=14 January 2015}}</ref>

[[Economist]] and [[Nobel laureate]] [[Amartya Sen]] commented that some evidence is required in the controversial claims made in the [[Indian Science Congress]] regarding the achievements of ancient Indians. He said, "The idea that human beings can fly is known to human beings from birth. The idea that human beings might be able to be on the air has been talked about a lot. If that was true, then we would like to find some evidence." 
Further, he elaborated, "As our epics show, Indians have thought about flying for a long time. But it would be fanciful to say that India invented the aeroplane. If ancient India had airfare technology, we would like to see some evidence. I agree there are a lot of claims that have nothing to do with achievements."<ref name=sen>{{cite news|title=Claims made in Science might need evidence, says Amartya Sen|url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/india/claims-made-in-science-might-need-evidence-says-amartya-sen/521455-3.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150201064626/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/india/claims-made-in-science-might-need-evidence-says-amartya-sen/521455-3.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 February 2015|access-date=2 February 2015|work=[[CNN-IBN]]|date=6 January 2015}}</ref>

==Support==
Gauri Mahulikar, the head of the department of [[Sanskrit]] at Mumbai University, said that the paper would have been easily dismissed if it had been presented by Sanskrit professors. But, since Bodas was a pilot and Ameya Jadhav had a [[Master of Technology]] and a [[Master of Arts]] in [[Sanskrit]], it supposedly could not be rejected easily.<ref name=PseudoScience/>

==See also==
* [[Vimana]]
* [[Hindutva pseudohistory]]
* [[Ancient astronauts]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite web|title=Abstract: Ancient Indian Aviation Technology|url=http://sanskritbhavan.com/abs/Aviation.html|publisher=Department of Sanskrit, [[Mumbai University]]|author1=Anand Bodas|author2=Ameya Jadhav|date=January 2015|access-date=2015-01-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104185955/http://sanskritbhavan.com/abs/Aviation.html|archive-date=2015-01-04|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite book | last1=Mazur | first1=Eric Michael | last2=Taylor | first2=Sarah McFarland | title=Religion and Outer Space | publisher=Taylor & Francis | publication-place=Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY | date=2023-07-07|chapter=The Myth Of Ancient Indian Airplanes|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TBi-EAAAQBAJ| editor1=Wendy|editor2=Doniger | isbn=978-1-000-90469-7}}

[[Category:Controversies in India]]
[[Category:2015 controversies]]
[[Category:Transport controversies]]
[[Category:Hinduism and science]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]