How fake Tamil patriots are scamming about ancient science

We are living in an era where we have scientific solutions for almost all possible problems in our life. In fact, we are even thinking whether to proceed further with technology or to go back to traditional methods based on scientific arguments. However technology in the hands of ignorant people have paved way to mass spread of fake propogandas. Tamil politicians are experts in misusing the ignorance of people for their fake propoganda, especially in claiming ownership for all the modern scientific theories. The best example of this propoganda is the following image:

This meme claims that since Brahadeeswara temple (Thanjavur big temple) was built a thousand years ago on the basis of gravity. Hence, Newton shouldn't be credited for the universal theory of gravity. In case you are wondering what is wrong with this meme, here is a brief history of gravitational theory. Aristotle is said to have proposed the first definition for gravity in 4th century BCE. He believed that every object tend towards a point because of their inner gravitas (heaviness). Several other scientists have had their explanation of gravity. Even Indian scientists have understood that gravity as an attractive force in the early centuries of CE. 

This vague definition of gravity could be easily understood without any mathematical knowledge just by observing all the objects on the Earth. This understanding is more than enough to build temples or any other architectural wonder. But then why is Newton (who was born in the 17th century) credited for the law of universal gravitation?

For that one, who needs to understand what it takes to get recognition among the scientific society. The term theory in the context of science is often misleading. Theory in general context would mean an idea that tries to explain something. This theory doesn't have to be proved, validated, or verified (Yes, these three words have different meanings in scientific context). 

In the scientific context, a theory is totally different. The method to arrive at a theory is as follows:

1. Make an observation.
2. Frame a question.
3. Propose a hypothesis.
4. Make predictions out of the hypothesis.
5. Test the prediction.
6. Verify the results.
7. Let your rival validate the predictions and resulrs.
8. Get a theory on your name.

Coming back to the universal law of gravitation, Sir Isaac Newton took up the understanding from his predecessors that objects tend to accelerate equally on free fall irrespective of their masses, and extended it by calculating the gravitational constant and proposing a new defintion, which is stated as,

Every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.

He has derived the mathematical expressions that are required to prove that planets are orbiting around the Sun because of gravitational force. He proposed his findings before a group of people, who couldn't understand what he was trying to say. Then they tried hard to disprove him through various experiments and rigorous testing but ended up making his theory world famous.

To give a clarity, THE GIGANTIC BRHADEESHWARA TEMPLE BUILT BY CHOZHAS IS NOT ENOUGH TO PROVE THIS LAW.  It doesn't say anything other than the fact that there's attractive force.

Initially I thought that this is a simple matter of ignorance and muted the user, who posted this image. A few days later some other guy reminded me of a chapter from my high school Tamil textbook. It is called "Tamizhan Ariviyal Munnodi", meaning Tamils were pioneer in science. I remember how proud I used to be to have a Tamil origin when I was reading that chapter. It had the following claims:

1. Avvayar discovered Pascal's law.
2. Seethalai Sathanar discovered Raman effect.
3. Kabilar invented telescope.

Only in the wildest of fantasies can one make these claims. It is so comfortable to the Tamil patriots with fake science enthusiasm to read these books and believe that Tamils had been deprived of the actual credit for all the scientific discoveries. But when people with even minimal knowledge in science read the chapter, they would understand that they were all false and misguiding information.

As mentioned earlier, just because someone had the intuition that something could work one way doesn't give them the scientific ownership for that idea. They need to follow the scientific method of formulating a theory.

Avvayar had written an anecdote to say, "just like how all the water in the ocean could not be compressed inside a watercan...". Kabilar had written something like, "how you could see the whole image of a mountain in a small dew over the grass...". The first one is merely an intuition and the other one is a small observation. Nothing really had gone to the level of formulating a hypothesis.

These kind of intuitions need no scientific knowledge. If an artist is mixing red and blue colors to produce pink color, that doesn't prove that he had the knowledge about how our retina perceives colors. It only means that out of experience, the artist had understood the right combination of red and blue to get the pink shade. Just because he is able to find the right combination, it doesn't mean that he is an expert in chemistry. He doesn't need scientific knowledge. He gets that through practice and experience. Similarly, for observing and making wild guesses, one doesn't need scientific knowledge. 

When it comes to Raman effect, let's first ignore the fact that C. V. Raman was also of Tamil origin and hence stealing credits from him would be to shame real Tamil scientists. The author simply quotes lines from Seethalai Sathanar's work which goes like, "Lovers were separated through a glass wall so that they can see each other but cannot speak". He then uses this reference to say that he discovered Raman effect way before C. V. Raman.

The irony about Raman effect is that it is so popular but nobody knows what it is. Raman effect has got nothing to do with properties of light and sound travelling through glass. It speaks about change in wavelength of light when light is deflected through molecules. The author conveniently twisted the facts just to defame C. V. Raman and steal the credit for his Nobel prize winning work.

If we observe critically everything is aligning completely with the political propoganda of separatist politicians, who are manipulating facts and manufacturing evidences to create fake identities to their people. There is no other explanation of why such a scientifically inaccurate piece of text would be published in a school textbook.

Ignorance of Tamil people and carrying the fake pride is one of the major reasons that cause national disintegrity. Either people should be aware of scientific facts and verify it when politicians are twisting the facts. Or they simply have to shut up and not take pride in something that they don't understand. Until then fake history and science would keep spreading through generations.