Pythagoras and the holy dip

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Editorial: By Jawed Naqvi, Copy Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: RELIGIOUS beliefs and science have coexisted for centuries. Science and superstition can also find a way to trudge along together. A brilliant scientist may not tread the path that has been crossed by a cat. Ergo, superstition and science can coexist provided they do not interfere with each other’s turf.

A theorem attributed to Greek philosopher and polymath Pythagoras posits that the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal in area to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. A lesser known fact about Pythagoras, who lived around 450 BC, some 150 years after Buddha, is that he believed in the transmigration of souls.

In Modi’s India, the latter part of the idea — transmigration of souls — is considered uniquely Indian, a hallmark of a Vishwaguru privilege. Unlike Pythagoras though, many Hindus believe that the cycle of birth and rebirth could end with moksha, starting with a holy dip in the River Ganga that would initiate the process by washing away one’s sins.

Many in the other half, who managed to stay on in school and got to learn the geometrical theorem, are looking for jobs, any job at all.

Many Chinese, too, despite the hold of rationalism and Marxism on their society are religious and also seriously superstitious. It’s not unusual, after all, to find taxi drivers in Beijing with Mao Zedong’s picture on the windscreen in the belief that he brings them good luck.

 

 

Yet the yawning chasm between India and China is evident. A stampede of Hindu devotees at the ongoing, weeks-long Maha Kumbh holy bath by the Ganga left dozens dead.

At around the same time, a little-known Chinese firm was making waves around the world by unveiling its totally free of charge, open-source artificial intelligence platform, DeepSeek.

The bath was a state-backed event. DeepSeek was the outcome of a private initiative in a country that flaunts “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

At around the same time as the Maha Kumbh, a little-known Chinese firm was making waves by unveiling its open source AI platform.

The state of Uttar Pradesh where the holy bath has been held for centuries — including the Mughal and British periods — invested a whopping billion dollars of public money in making the massive but still evidently inadequate arrangements for the 12-yearly Maha Kumbh Mela.

Some 400 million devotees are expected to move closer to moksha at this year’s holy dip, hoping to advance towards freedom from the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The festival is taking place at an Olympic-sized, 4,000-hectare temporary township created for the purpose on the river banks — the size of 7,500 football fields.

The creation of the DeepSeek AI platform is said to have cost a fraction of the money invested in the Indian bath, around $6m. Western analysts, seldom pleased with China’s progress, put the figure involved in creating the platform at $500m, still half the cost of hosting the holy bath, and a fraction of the cost of platforms created by tech giants in the US.

 

 

DeepSeek has gained instant popularity across the world, while its Western competitors suffered enormous losses at the stock exchange.

I downloaded the app and put it to use right away. It was not a heavy-duty scientific concern that one vented, but a couple of questions to DeepSeek to see how it works.

Did Mughal Emperor Akbar really bathe in the Ganga on or outside the Maha Kumbh, as several websites, including pro-Hindutva pages, seem to suggest? The answer was professorial.

“There is no definitive historical evidence to suggest that Mughal Emperor Akbar bathed in the Ganga River. While Akbar was known for his religious tolerance and interest in various cultural and spiritual practices, specific accounts of him bathing in the Ganga are not documented in prominent historical records. The Ganga River holds significant religious importance in Hinduism, and while Akbar respected diverse faiths, his personal involvement in such rituals is not well-established.”

The DeepSeek tutorial didn’t end there. Like a gentle teacher respecting a diligent student, it had a parting message. “If you have a specific source or reference in mind, feel free to share, and I can help analyse it further!”

Taking DeepSeek for its word, the question remained whether there was any reference to the Ganga at all by Akbar’s chroniclers.

“Yes, the Ganga River is mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari, a detailed document written by Abul Fazl, the court historian of Emperor Akbar. The Ain-i-Akbari is part of the larger work, the Akbarnama, and it provides a comprehensive account of the administration, geography, culture, and traditions of Akbar’s empire. In the Ain-i-Akbari, the Ganga is described as one of the sacred rivers of India, highlighting its religious and cultural significance, particularly in Hinduism.”

While I was posing a question according to my grasp of technological matters, it seemed worthwhile also to test the political angularities its critics have been infusing into the landmark event.

Was DeepSeek being governed by political limitations? The question was in fact simpler. Did President Xi Jinping comment on the achievement? The answer was terse. “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”

There was advice nevertheless that followed about how to pose the question from another angle: “How might DeepSeek be used by the Chinese government for surveillance, social control, or propaganda? AI tools are often linked to China’s social credit system and censorship mechanisms. Is DeepSeek part of China’s push to lead in AI by 2030, as outlined in its national AI strategy?” I believe the open source platform is already enabling many research labs to set up inexpensive AI systems.

Despite their different emphasis on science and religion, India and China have a quaint similarity.

At around the time Prime Minister Modi was swimming in his village pond and bringing home the odd baby crocodile, the Chinese people saw Mao Zedong swimming in the Yangtze Kiang near Wuhan in 1966, a dip that launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Also Read more from this Author: Are Gandhis equipped for the fight?

Curated and Compiled by Humra Kidwai

First Published in Dawn