India committed to rediscover its past: M.J. Akbar

Kolkata, Dec 28 : Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar on Wednesday said India is committed to rediscover its past and make it a "very essential" part of the world's future.

"I want to reinforce the commitment of our ministry, the ICCR and also the academics here and elsewhere, that we are committed not only to rediscover the past but to make this past into a very, very essential part of the world's future," Akbar said here at the inaugural of the maiden Vedic Mathematics International Conference.

The conference is organised by Institute for the Advancement of Vedic Mathematics (IAVM) and sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Expanding on the reasons why Indians seem to have "lost" their past, Akbar likened it to a calamity.

"There are many reasons why we Indians seem to have lost our past in the last three centuries or so. Maybe the thread of confidence got broken when we began to view ourselves from someone else's way."

"One regretful consequence of the syndrome has been the rise of contemporary pedantics... the replacement of the rigorous Pandit by the lip service of false punditry, but to lose a tradition as deep, inspirational and significant as ours is not merely carelessness ... it is a calamity," he said.