Mathematics is NOT universal. Indian ganita was practical, hence accepted facts, and empirical proofs, as does science. But Western mathematics was religiously oriented, since Pythagoreans and Plato who explicitly related math to mathesis and the soul, and declared this religious math to be “superior” to practically-oriented math. The church transformed this religious understanding of math in two ways. During the Crusades, it (a) accepted “reason”, as part of Christian theology (mimicking Islamic rational theology). Its aim was to use “universal” reason to convert Muslims (who accepted reason, or aql, but rejected the Bible as corrupted). It reinterpreted a (Neoplatonic) math text to to declare that math was solely about the immediate church requirement of using “universal” reason for persuasive proofs (to convert Muslims), and used this text (“Euclid”) to teach reasoning to its priests (e.g. in Cambridge). Further, the church (b) rejected facts as “inferior” to un-testable (metaphysical) axioms, to save its numerous dogmas which were contrary to facts. Few understand the confusing church doublespeak about “reason” meaning “reason minus facts”), commonly confounded with “reason” in the usual sense of “reason plus facts”. In fact, ganita (normal math, reason plus facts) differs from Western math (formal math, reason minus facts). The church allied with the colonial state to conquer colonised minds through colonial education: its key propaganda was about Western “superiority” and non-Western “inferiority”. Hence, colonial education propagated the myth of “Euclid” and his axiomatic proofs declared “superior” and infallible. However, there is nil evidence for Euclid. There is ample counter-evidence that “Euclid’s” Elements was a book by another author from another time written for a different reason (it was a Neoplatonic book on math as mathesis) About the Speaker: Professor C. K. Raju has advanced revolutionary new ideas in Mathematics and Physics. He helped build India's first supercomputer, and first explained how calculus originated in India and was transmitted to Europe. He is Tagore Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction: Colonial education and mathematics 5:48 The concept of angle in different cultures 13:53 The complexity of proving 1+1=2 in formal mathematics 16:48 Why empirical proof is prohibited in formal mathematics 20:31 Ganita vs. Formal Mathematics: The acceptance of empirical proof 23:58 The false hierarchy: Why formal mathematics is declared "superior" 27:04 Formal reasoning vs. normal reasoning: The crucial difference 30:23 The myth of Greek mathematics: Did Euclid use axiomatic proofs? 35:45 Bertrand Russell's 378-page proof of 1+1=2 38:09 The fallibility of human reasoning and deduction 41:41 The practical value of calculation vs. proof 44:27 What is an axiom? Wrong assumptions lead to wrong conclusions 49:35 The church's intervention in mathematics 53:43 Aquinas and metaphysics: Angels on the head of a pin 57:49 How colonial education shapes our thinking 1:03:56 Q&A: AI, algorithms and Pratyaksh Pramana 1:06:56 Q&A: The paradox of "real" numbers 1:11:13 Q&A: Mathematics and church confrontations Subscribe to our YouTube channels: YouTube English: http://www.youtube.com/c/SangamTalks YouTube Hindi: https://www.youtube.com/sangamhindi Follow Sangam Talks on social media : Telegram : https://t.me/sangamtalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/sangamtalks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sangamtalks/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sangamtalks/ Website: http://www.sangamtalks.org Donate: http://www.sangamtalks.org/donate #decolonizingmathematics #formalmath #indianmathematics #colonialism #education #mathematics #philosophy #ckraju #decolonization #history #ganita #euclid