VP Jagdeep Dhankhar says intellectual & cultural rise significant for India as global power

Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar yesterday said that India’s rise as a global power must be accompanied by the rise of its intellectual and cultural gravitas. Addressing a Conference on Indian Knowledge Systems at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, Mr. Dhankhar highlighted that intellectual and cultural rise is very significant as the rise without this is not lasting, and is not aligned in harmony with the traditions of the country. He asserted that the strength of a nation lies in the originality of its thought, the timelessness of its values, and the resilience of its intellectual traditions. 

The Vice President further highlighted that long before the Universities of Europe came into being; India’s



universities had already established themselves as thriving centres of learning. He added that ancient India was home to luminous centres of intellectual life. These include Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikramashila, Vallabhi and Odantapuri. Calling for focused action to strengthen Indian Knowledge Systems, Mr. Dhankhar emphasized the creation of digitized repositories of classical Indian texts, covering all classical languages such as Sanskrit, Tamil, Pali, and Prakrit.

Speaking at the same event, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that in the last 11 years Indian Knowledge Systems have seen a historic resurgence from International Yoga Day to the global recognition of AYUSH.