#Ajayan | Science historian Meera Nanda’s latest book, A Field Guide to Post-Truth India, uncovers the hidden layers of an emerging majoritarian State that uses myths disguised as science to undermine secularism. In clear and powerful prose, Nanda reveals how these distortions threaten reason and truth in today’s discourse, unraveling the forces that are reshaping a once-pluralistic society.
The essays in this book draw insightful parallels between Israel's ethnic democracy and the profound political and cultural shifts that have emerged since the Modi government came to power in 2014. They explore India’s journey through an evolving post-secular landscape, charting the nation’s path as it grapples with blurred lines between fact and fiction, and steps into an impending post-truth era.
Through a display of distorting knowledge, misinformation and outright lies, the Hindutva exponents have been attempting, and quite successfully, to generate a narrative that glorifies the past and legitimizes dubious claims in the scriptures as true science. Here myth takes the place of history and this past becomes ‘truth’ that in its true sense is mere lies.
The opening essay, titled “Big Lies and Deep Lies”, draws a striking comparison between the knowledge crisis, or post-truth era, seen in Trump’s America and Modi’s India - what Nanda deems the "deep lie". She highlights the alarming role of State sponsorship in embedding ‘Indian knowledge systems’ into educational curricula, even within prestigious research institutions, where myth is recast as history, and the “spiritual visions or seeing of rishis” are hailed as valid scientific methods. To compound this distortion, ancient Hindu sastras are now given the mantle of authorized science, further blurring the line between empirical truth and ideological fabrication.
The following essay, “Defending Tradition, Defying Science: Ayurveda in the Time of COVID-19”, delves into the government’s vigorous promotion of Ayurveda amidst a global health crisis. During a time when urgent scientific intervention was crucial, traditional medicine was given unprecedented priority, often accompanied by the rise of self-styled spiritual figures who, even now, wield considerable influence. While this emphasis on traditional practices aligns with a broader agenda, the author occasionally takes a stringent stance in critiquing these healing methods, overlooking that many have, indeed, endured and proven beneficial over time.
In the chapter “The Dark Age of the Unicorn Indigenous Aryans”, Meera Nanda critiques the reimagining of ancient symbols, such as the unicorn on Indus Valley seals, which has been transformed into a horse. The single horn, she notes, is no longer seen as a horn but rather as the “radiant light” emerging from the brows of the revered Arya sages, masters of early Yoga. This symbol is now even claimed to represent the sage Rishi Sringa, despite the fact that the Ramayana - in which Sringa appears - was composed after 300 BC, while these seals date back to around 2000 BC. Besides, the IIT Kharagpur Calendar of 2022 adds to this reinterpretation by depicting the Pasupathi seal of Mohenjo-Daro as Shiva.
In “India’s Long Goodbye to Darwin”, the author examines the ‘silent coup’ of axing Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory from school textbooks. It has got replaced by the assertion that it was Patanjali - living over 2,000 years before Darwin - who first introduced the concept of evolution, though through karma and rebirth rather than natural selection. The narrative evokes the statement of a prominent leader who questioned evolution, asking why no one has ever seen an ape transform into a human. Adding to this departure from science, proponents claim that we are not “children of monkeys” but “descendants of rishis”, further blending myth with scientific discourse. She ends the chapter with “Goodbye, Charles Darwin. You’ll be missed.”
In an era where Yoga Day is celebrated worldwide - a subtle yet powerful exercise for Hindu nationalism - the chapter “Yogic Perceptions and Hindu Sciences” gains profound relevance. Here, Meera Nanda illuminates the opening verse of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, where the yogi aspires to “see” beyond the senses and reason, glimpsing truths through the mind’s eye alone. Unfortunately, this inner vision remains inaccessible to ordinary mortals who lack the yogic insight and so the Yogi’s glimpse should be taken as the ultimate truth. Nanda delves deeply into how Swami Vivekananda, the founding voice of mystical empiricism, shaped major intellectuals of his time, laying a foundation that continues to influence contemporary narratives.
The concluding chapter, “Science Sanskritized: How Modern Science Became a Handmaiden of Hindu Nationalism,” explores the ongoing efforts to reduce modern science to a mere extension of Vedic wisdom. Through this lens, contemporary scientific principles are reframed as if rooted within ancient texts, aligning them with a nationalist agenda that seeks to reimagine India’s scientific heritage.
The relentless drive for Vedicizing science has encountered little resistance. Amid the deafening silence from much of the intellectual and academic community, Meera Nanda’s voice rises, strong, unwavering and loud, warning that scientific temper itself stands imperiled, a threat to democracy and secularism too.
