Dear Nature India forum members:

My name is Raj Chakrabarti, and I’m a research scientist in chemical physics at Princeton University. Along with several colleagues, including Rajiv Malhotra, the director of the Infinity Foundation in Princeton, NJ, we are moderating an international online forum on Indian contributions to the theoretical sciences over history.

Recent work in this area indicates that in mathematics, astronomy and linguistics, ancient and medieval Indian scientists made certain seminal discoveries – pertaining, for example, to the foundations of infinite series and the calculus – several centuries before their Western counterparts, to whom these findings are currently attributed. Our goal is to publish original papers on these topics and to ultimately assemble a curriculum for the teaching of Indian science history in universities around the globe.

Members of the forum include many top Indian scientists, as well as young researchers, from India, Canada, the UK, Italy, and the US. These include: R. Narasimha, FRS, IISc, former Director of the Indian National Institute of Advanced Studies; K.R. Sreenivasan, Director of the International Center for Theoretical Physics and Prof. Of Mech. E., Physics, Math at Yale; C.K. Raju, statistician and prominent author on Indian Mathematics history; Shivaji Sondhi, Prof of Physics at Princeton. We would be pleased if you would join us by following the link below:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/indiantheory/

and contributing any thoughts you have on the subject matter. A detailed document describing the goals of the “Indian theoretical sciences discussion forum” can be found there. Various interesting articles on the topic (many by forum members, in international journals including Nature) are also posted. Please don’t hesitate to sign on as a member and make your voice heard. Scientists (including social scientists) from all disciplines, and all backgrounds, are invited. We need more scientists like yourselves from India who are interested in promoting the cause of clarifying the remarkable contributions of India to the sciences over the ages, a subject that is particularly important at this juncture, especially with the launch of Nature India.

Hope to see you soon!

With best regards,

Raj Chakrabarti, PhD
Research Scientist, Chemical Physics
Department of Chemistry
Princeton University