Sections of science educators and scientists have expressed concern over the introduction of what they have described as “pseudoscientific” topics, including astrology and reincarnation, in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the guise of Indian knowledge systems (IKS).

The members of the All India Peoples’ Science Network (AIPSN), in an online public petition, have also urged faculty members in HEIs running such courses to oppose them using whatever mechanisms might be available within their institutions.

In some institutions, the AIPSN has said, the introduction of IKS has become “a free-for-all fest” for people who hold “naïve or pseudoscientific ideas about the history of Indian science and mathematics”.

The AIPSN has cited examples of courses that include topics such as reincarnation and out-of-body experiences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, and astrology and “bhootvidya” at the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, among the “unscientific and unsupported claims”. It has also questioned a claim from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, that Indian civilisation dates back beyond the last ice age — implying, over 10,000 years ago.

The AIPSN said the designers of these courses appear unaware of pluralistic knowledge traditions in India and, instead, air their parochial understanding of IKS. Much of the content of such courses seems to start and end with what they find on dubious Internet sites that make exaggerated claims on half-baked Sanskrit knowledge traditions, it said.

“We urge all HEIs to use only well-researched scientific sources for their IKS courses and weed out pseudoscientific claims. They should stay true to the diversity that is inherent in the IKS,” the AIPSN petition said. “We also call out all academics who are doing a disservice to education in general but Indian knowledge systems in particular by inclusion of the pseudoscientific claims in their courses.”

The AIPSN has also flagged what it has described as a “shoddy and biased” introduction of IKS in school textbooks. The social science book from the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT), for instance, seems to privilege Sanskrit-based traditions over others, it said.

In the guise of countering the racist western origin of scientific outlook, National Education Policy proponents tend to take a “reverse racist position”, claiming that “everything was known in ancient India”, the AIPSN said. The science educators have cited concerns expressed by an ayurveda physician that a chapter on ayurveda in a Class XI textbook from the NCERT had overstated claims and exaggerated the antiquity of ayurveda by over 1,500 years.

The AIPSN has also said most faculty members in colleges and universities have no prior experience or training to teach the detailed syllabus for a possible IKS course on the history of Indian astronomy and mathematics recommended by the University Grants Commission.

“This pedagogical expertise among teachers around the country cannot be built by merely making them attend a few ill-planned training programmes,” the AIPSN said. Such poorly conceived courses “do a disservice to some of the profound contributions of Indian mathematics by their dishonest and cartoonish representation”, it said.