Now, a school to teach Vedas, Aryan science

The Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) in Thane district on Thursday, unanimously approved a plan to create a school to teach children ‘Vedas’ and explain how scientific the ‘Aryan’ culture was.

Mandar Halbe, corporator of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, put forward the plan to build the proposed ‘Aryashastra’ to the civic body ruled by the Shiv Sena-BJP combine.

“This is not about religion; it is only for educational purposes. The Vedas must be taken to children, and they should be taught science through them,” Mr. Halbe told

The Hindu . The proposal was accepted without any discussion.

Mr. Halbe said ‘Project Aryashastra’ was aimed at building a school to explain how science had always been an integral part of the Vedas. Students could study the Vedas full time or go for part-time courses. “If the government can fund Madarasas, why not a school like this,” he asked.

“We need to think about the direction we are taking. Are we going to push our children into the past again? Our priority should be to ensure that students from Madarasas also start going to normal schools and not start our own Aryashastras,” said Kishor Darak, an independent researcher in education from Pune.

The plan will now go for the administrative approval. Suresh Awari, who heads the Education Department at the KDMC, said his department had nothing to do with the project. “It is an independent project,” he said.