Update: 17 April 2022

Decolonisation of math:
updated and annotated reading and viewing list


Colonialism was con-all-ism. Beware of “decolonisation” recommendations coming from “prestigious” universities of the coloniser: they misdirect.

General critique of formal math and its history

Basic books

  1. Cultural Foundations of Mathematics: the nature of mathematical proof, and the transmission of the calculus from India to Europe in the 16th c. CE  (Pearson Longman, 2007, PHISPC Vol. X.4, 477+xlv pp, ISBN: 81-317-0871-3. Summary at http://ckraju.net/papers/GJH-book-review.pdf. https://ghadar.org.in/2008/01/20/cultural-foundations-of-mathematics/

  2. Euclid and Jesus: How and Why the Church Changed Mathematics and Christianity across Two Religious Wars. Penang: Multiversity and Citizens International, 2012.

  3. Is Science Western in Origin? Dissenting Knowledges Pamphlet Series. Multiversity, 2009. Reprint, 2013, Other India Bookstore, Goa.



Recent popular level (but serious) articles

  1. Racism in the math classroom: “Pythagorean theorem” and the two myths of “Euclid”1

  2. The church origins of (axiomatic) math2

  3. Why (axiomatic) math is racist3

  4. Indian calculus, California math framework and technology, Part 1: The Indian origin of Calculus and its Transmission to Europe and Part 2: Don’t cancel the calculus, make it easy!4, short summary: How to make calculus easy5

Scholarly articles

  1. Decolonisation article, Durban: Deductive proofs are fallible.6

  2. Ganita vs math Hindi article, Himanjali.7










  1. Broader articles on decolonising math and science: Ending the hegemony of the university, Beirut,8 Decolonising mathematics: How and why it makes science better (and enables students to solve harder problems) Palestine,9 failure of real-number calculus at singularities and singularity theory (Roger Penrose, and Stephen Hawking)10

  2. Euclid must fall articles, part 1: the origins of racism, and part 2: no axiomatic proof of Pythagorean theorem in Greek math11 related video of talk at univs of Tubingen-Pretoria,12 and “Goodbye Euclid” videos of talk at Universiti Sains Malaysia, and offer of challenge prize for primary evidence of Euclid. 13


Calculus


  1. Springer encyclopedia articles, Calculus, Calculus transmission, zeroism, logic 14

  2. Articles reporting teaching of calculus courses to 4 math groups (3 UG + 1 PG) in Universiti Sains Malaysia part 1: Formal math as biased metaphysics, and part 2: calculus without limits15

  3. Introductory lectures USM/SGT, 2010, 2017. Three preliminary technical lectures (from viewpoint of formal math) for faculty, before calculus course. Calculus without limits: the theory, Part 1: current pedagogy of the calculus, a critique, Part 2: a critique of formal math, axioms and definitions (including whether reals or non-Archimedean arithmetic is needed for calculus), Part 3: choice of logic underlying proof.16

  4. Blogs on calculus teaching experiments: Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi: Ambedkar University, Delhi, (“Calculus for social scientists”), Center for International Scientific Studies and Cooperation, Tehran, SGT University, Delhi.17 Workshop and “Institute lecture” at IIT: BHU.

  5. Video of talk at MIT, Cambridge, Mass., 2015, Abstract: “Calculus: the real story”. Presentation.

  6. Video of TSSP Eminent Scholar lecture, Abstract, Presentation.

  7. Video of talk at IISc, Bengaluru, 2015, “Calculus: ganita or math?”. Abstract at “Ganita vs math: ten myths underlying Western math and the need to reject them.”

  8. An early article: “Computers, Mathematics Education, and the Alternative Epistemology of the Calculus in the YuktiBhâsâ”, Philosophy East and West, 51(3), 2001, pp. 325–362..


Probability and statistics


  1. Probability in ancient India,18 article for Elsevier Handbook for Philosophy of Statistics.

  2. Probability, simplified article in Springer encyclopedia.19

  3. Video of JNU talk “Statistics for social science and humanities.20


School geometry (rajju ganita)

  1. Early paper: Indian rope trick, “Goodbye Euclid!”21

  2. Workshop on Rajju Ganita, Indore, announcement, photos, media reports.

  3. Comprehensive workshop on “Rajju Ganita vs Euclidean geometry”, announcement,22 links to videos (5 hours 42 mins), Part 1, and Part 2.23

Videos

An updated list of 70+ videos is at https://tinyurl.com/ckr-video.

Press

Older press reports and popular-level newspaper articles. http://ckraju.net/press/.

1https://medium.com/@c_k_raju/racism-in-the-math-classroom-pythagorean-theorem-and-the-two-myths-of-euclid-c83da308bda4.

2https://medium.com/@c_k_raju/the-church-origins-of-axiomatic-math-e08036dbe29d.

3https://medium.com/@c_k_raju/why-axiomatic-math-is-racist-f1d81d716f13.

4C. K. Raju, ‘California, Indian Calculus and the Technology Race. 1: The Indian Origin of Calculus and Its Transmission to Europe’, Boloji.Com, 11 December 2021, https://www.boloji.com/articles/52924/california-indian-calculus; C. K. Raju, ‘California, Indian Calculus and the Technology Race. 2: Don’t Cancel the Calculus, Make It Easy!’, Boloji.Com, 24 December 2021, https://www.boloji.com/articles/52950/california-indian-calculus-and.

5“How to make calculus easy”, https://tinyurl.com/ckr-calc2s.

6C. K. Raju, ‘Decolonising Mathematics’, AlterNation 25, no. 2 (2018): 12–43b. Video of Durban keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpS6MfzJr2E.

7C. K. Raju, ‘गणित बनाम मैथमेटिक्स [Ganita vs Mathematics]’, Himanjali 20, no. July-December (2020): 34–44, http://iias.ac.in/himanjali/. Alternative link: http://ckraju.net/papers/ckr-article-Himanjali-22%e2%80%94Final-18-06-2021.pdf.

8C. K. Raju, ‘How to break the hegemony perpetuated by the university: decolonised courses in mathematics and the history and philosophy of science (Arabic)’, in Culturalistion of Humanities: Vision and Experiments. (Proceedings of the International Conference on Culturalization of the Humanities, held in Beirut on 20-21 November 2018.) (Beirut: Al Maaref University, 2019), 77–114, http://ckraju.net/papers/Beirut-paper%20for%20iias%20journal.pdf; Raju, C. K., ‘How to Break the Hegemony Perpetuated by the University: Decolonised Courses in Mathematics and the History and Philosophy of Science’, Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 26, no. 2 (2019): 86–109.

9C. K. Raju, ‘Decolonising Mathematics: How and Why It Makes Science Better (and Enables Students to Solve Harder Problems)’, Palestine Technical University Research Journal 6, no. 2 (2018): 1–4. Censored by Israel’s refusal to grant a visa. http://ckraju.net/papers/Palestine-article.pdf. Original link: https://scholar.ptuk.edu.ps/bitstream/123456789/684/5/2018_%206_2_%20pp1-4%20.pdf.

10C. K. Raju, ‘A Singular Nobel?’, Mainstream 59, no. 7 (30 January 2021), http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article10406.html. Alternative link: http://ckraju.net/papers/Penrose-mod.html.

11C. K. Raju, ‘“Euclid” Must Fall: The “Pythagorean” “Theorem” and The Rant Of Racist and Civilizational Superiority — Part 1’, Arụmarụka: Journal of Conversational Thinking 1, no. 1 (2021): 127–55, http://ckraju.net/papers/AJCT-Euclid-must-fall-Part-1.pdf; C. K. Raju, ‘“Euclid” Must Fall: The “Pythagorean” “Theorem” and the Rant of Racist and Civilizational Superiority - Part 2’, Arumaruka: Journal of Conversational Thinking 1, no. 2 (2021): 57–105, http://ckraju.net/papers/AJCT-Euclid-must-fall-Part-2.pdf.

12https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAP1BcK8mLE.

13For links to the videos and announcement of the talk, see http://ckraju.net/blog/?p=63.

14C. K. Raju, ‘Calculus’, in Encyclopedia of Non-Western Science, Technology and Medicine (Springer, 2016), 1010–15, http://ckraju.net/papers/Springer/ckr-Springer-encyclopedia-calculus-1-final.pdf; C. K. Raju, ‘Calculus Transmission’, in Encyclopedia of Non-Western Science, Technology and Medicine, ed. Helaine Selin (Dordrecht: Springer, 2016), http://ckraju.net/papers/Springer/ckr-Springer-encyclopedia-calculus-2-final.pdf; C. K. Raju, ‘Zeroism’, in Encyclopedia of Non-Western Science, Technology and Medicine (Springer, 2016), http://ckraju.net/papers/Springer/zeroism-springer-f.pdf; ‘Logic’, in Encyclopedia of Non-Western Science, Technology and Medicine (Springer, 2016 2008), pp. 2564–2570, http://ckraju.net/papers/Nonwestern-logic.pdf.

15C. K. Raju, ‘Teaching Mathematics with a Different Philosophy. 1: Formal Mathematics as Biased Metaphysics’, Science and Culture 77, no. 7–8 (2011): 274–79, https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1312/1312.2099.pdf; C. K. Raju, ‘Teaching Mathematics with a Different Philosophy. 2: Calculus without Limits’, Science and Culture 7, no. 7–8 (2011): 280–85. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1312/1312.2100.pdf.

16“Calculus without limits: the theory”, “1: Current pedagogy of the calculus, a critique”, http://ckraju.net/sgt/technical-presentations-faculty/ckr-sgt-tech-presentation-1.pdf, “2: A critique of formal mathematics, 1. Axioms and definitions”, http://ckraju.net/sgt/technical-presentations-faculty/ckr-sgt-tech-presentation-2.pdf, “3: A critique of formal math, 2, The choice of logic underlying proof.” http://ckraju.net/sgt/technical-presentations-faculty/ckr-sgt-tech-presentation-3.pdf.

17https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.835427293287604&type=3, photos of students, http://ckraju.net/papers/presentations/images/calculus-sgt-a.jpg, video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sdimbGwUCA.

18C. K. Raju, ‘Probability in Ancient India’, in Handbook of Philosophy of Statistics, ed. Paul Thagard Dov M. Gabbay and John Woods, vol. 7, Handbook of Philosophy of Science (Elsevier, 2011), 1175–96, http://ckraju.net/papers/Probability-in-Ancient-India.pdf.

19C. K. Raju, ‘Probability’, in Encyclopedia of Non-Western Science, Technology and Medicine, ed. Helaine Selin (Dordrecht: Springer, 2016), http://ckraju.net/papers/Springer/Probability-springer.pdf.

20C. K. Raju, Statistics for Social Science and Humanities: Should We Teach It Using Normal Math or Formal Math?, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Og1k-Z5O4.

21C. K. Raju, ‘Towards Equity in Math Education 2. The Indian Rope Trick’, Bharatiya Samajik Chintan (New Series) 7, no. 4 (2009): 265–69. http://ckraju.net/papers/MathEducation2RopeTrick.pdf.C. K. Raju, ‘Towards Equity in Math Education. 1: Goodbye Euclid!’, Bharatiya Samajik Chintan (New Series) 7, no. 4 (2009): 235–64, http://ckraju.net/papers/MathEducation1Euclid.pdf.

22Rajju Ganita workshop Bengaluru, 5-6 June 2021, http://ckraju.net/blog/?p=197.


23“Euclidean” Geometry vs Rajju Ganita, http://ckraju.net/blog/?p=200