Amid Rumours of Patanjali Heading India's First Vedic Board, Ramdev Says Liberation from Macaulay Days Soon

New Delhi: Yoga guru Ramdev, whose Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust is in the running to establish the country’s first Vedic board, said the upcoming institution with a traditional orientation would change the way the country looked at its culture.

Ramdev was addressing a gathering at the News18 Network's Rising India summit.

The session ‘New Mantras of India’, moderated by CBFC chairperson and writer Prasoon Joshi, was also graced by Sadhguru Vasudev Jaggi.

Speculation about India’s first Vedic board has been doing the rounds since 2016 when Smriti Irani headed the human resource development ministry.

A report by the Indian Express had recently stated the Maharshi Sandipani Rashtriya Vedavidya Pratishthan (MSRVP), which is a fully funded autonomous body under the HRD ministry that is working on promotion of ‘ved vidya’ (Vedic education), has been directed to appoint a private sponsoring body for putting the Bharaitya Shikshan Board in place.

Ramdev’s Haridwar-based trust, along with the Ritnand Balved Education Foundation, which runs the Amity Group of Institutions, and Pune-based Maharashtra Institute of Technology were the three private players that had responded to the ‘Expression of Interest’ (EOI) released by the MSRVP as part of inviting applications for establishing the board.

Ramdev’s Trust is likely to head the board.

Responding to a question from Joshi, Ramdev said, “No one can criticise Bible and Quran, but in India, there is a gang that criticises the Vedas and Hindu religion. Soon, an Indian education board will be set up and it will change how people think here.”

Quoting Lord Macaulay on his thoughts towards the Indian culture, he said, “Looks like days of India's liberation from Macaulay are coming soon and a Bhartiya Siksha Board will be set up.”

The yoga guru said, “Religion and spirituality were differentiated in foreign languages, but they are not different in India. We don’t need scientific temperament from America or Europe. We have our own science too,” he said.

To keep the generation of people who always think of Indian culture first, he said there were several scientific ‘sanyasis’ coming from his institution.