Physics and Metaphysics in Newtonian and Indian Thought

C. K. Raju

Created: 2025-07-10 Thu 15:25

Introduction

Some recent claims

It has been claimed that Newtonian gravitation was anticipated in India.
These claims have been opposed saying that there was no inverse square law force in India.
I will critique both claims.

The we-did-it-first claim is bad because it mixes up Indian thought
with the superstitions of post-Crusade Christian metaphysics
incorporated into Newtonian physics.
Hence, damages Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) by importing (politicised) Christian metaphysics into it.

Newton's "laws": physics or metaphysics?

Newton's laws of motion and gravitation are taught as a prime example of physics.
Why do I call them metaphysics?

The PPP Criterion

I use the PPP criterion of refutability
renamed from Popper’s falsifiability/refutability:
PPP = Payasi–Poincaré–Popper
Distinguishes physics (refutable) from metaphysics (non-refutable)

Poincare anticipated Popper
in the difficult endeavor of inventing the special theory of relativity (quote-1, quote-2)
he rejected "physical interpretations" which were not refutable.

Payasi was the first to use the EXPERIMENTAL METHOD to try to REFUTE the notion of the soul (ātman).
See, Eleven Pictures of Time, or this popular-level article.
Hence, the term PPP criterion.

Newton a colonial god of science

Newton is usually presented as a colonial “god of science”
to be worshipped, and praised, never critiqued.
The first step in decolonization is to reject these planted stories, and this scientific idolatry of false gods
and go by the actual facts which speak poorly of Newton's character and ethics.

Newton’s Character and Ethics

Newton was a Christian fanatic who believed in biblical creationism.
Newton was deeply involved in human trafficking
Falsely claimed credit for Indian calculus using dogma of “Christian discovery”
Spent most of his life secretly trying to repair the Bible.

Theological Origins of belief in “Laws of Nature”

Term “laws of nature” stems from Thomas Aquinas’ Crusade-era theology
a political counter to Muslim beliefs
contrary also to Hindu, and Buddhist views, but won't go into all that.
Simple point: belief in eternal laws is NOT refutable, hence unscientific.
If refutable, then refuted when Newtonian physics itself failed and was replaced by relativity over a century ago.

Conceptual Problems in Newtonian Physics

Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation are metaphysical individually
Take Newton's first "law" of motion:
"in the absence of external forces the body stays in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line".
What is meant by "uniform" motion?

Uniform motion supposedly means the "body" (= point mass) covers equal distances in equal times.
Set aside equal distances.
What is meant by equal times?
To measure it a clock is needed.
But which clock to use? Your heartbeats or mine?

Barrow's definition

Newton's predecessor and mentor Isaac Barrow recognized the need for physicists to define equal intervals of time
saying they are otherwise quacks. He defined
"equal causes take equal times to produce equal effects"
hence the times measured by inverting a sand glass are equal.

But Newton overturned it

as also the "law" of gravitation.
- Newton’s belief in “mathematical time” was theological
Only by combining both laws we get refutability
e.g., Newtonian ballistic trajectories are elliptic while Galilean are parabolic

Relativity and the Fall of Newtonian Physics

These conceptual flaws—not experiments—led to the downfall of Newtonian physics.
Electrodynamics brought in waves which travel at \(c\) the speed of light
How would \(c\) and Maxwell's equations change if the reference frame was moving?

Poincare elegant solution was to keep \(c\) constant

by postulate
and use this to correct the conceptual flaw in Newtonian physics
a photon bouncing between parallel mirrors measures equal times between bounces.
But Newton's eternal laws of motion must be corrected!
Newton hadn't really read the mind of his god!

Since we get physics only by combining laws of motion and law of gravitation
the law of gravitation must also be corrected.
Whether that correction should be general relativity or my retarded gravitation theory
I leave as an open question

Was Newton's "law" of gravitation universal?

problem of planetary rotation
vs galactic rotation curves.
Postulating dark matter is accumulation of hypotheses
makes theory irrefutable.

Indian Views on Motion and Gravity

the key objection to the Indian anticipation of Newton's gravitation
is that there was no inverse square law force.
In fact, forces were not needed for Indian planetary models
so one should directly compare the models.

In Newtonian physics, linear motion was a zoom to be natural
and circular motion was explained as due to a force

In India, circular motion was seen as natural
based on observation of the night sky.
Hence no need for gravitational force to explain circular/elliptic orbits of planets.
Note that there is no notion of force in general relativity either.

No theory of ballistics

However, there was no theory of ballistics in Indian tradition.
Indian recognized that things fall towards the center of the earth
that the earth does not need any support in space

Planetary Models and Jesuit Appropriation

Nilakantha’s planetary model was appropriated by Jesuits
and mis-attributed as Tychonic model.
Jesuits preferred the Indian ("Tychonic") to heliocentrism
since they thought a geocentric model was theologically more correct
and spread it in China where it flourished till the end of the 18th century.

Newtonian model failed in the mid-19th century
due to its failure to explain the anomalous perihelion advance of Mercury

Story of heliocentrism is inappropriate for us

First, to refute any planetary model it must be compared with observation
all observations until the mid 20th century were geocentric.
therefore, even the heliocentric theory HAD to be made geocentric

by simply transforming from the heliocentric frame to a geocentric one
adding the vector of the earth's velocity around the sun
for comparison with observations.

Why Indians should reject heliocentrism

The first thing to recognize is that an heliocentric model is
IMPOSSIBLE on Newtonian physics.
Even the solution of the simplest 2 body problem results in a barycentric rosette.

But science for us, in practice, is not about applying our own mind
or comparing with observation
It is about aping the West.
Hence anything contrary to western story cannot be science!

False myth of Copernicus

It is known from long ago that the myth of the Christian priest Copernicus is false
He merely translated from Greek and Latin
the Syriac text of Ibn Shatir of Damascus/Maragheh
in Greek translation of which he found in the Vatican library.

We are waiting for Western approval which will never come!
In the meanwhile, we have a Copernicus Rd. in Delhi
and nobody even objects
or asks for it to be renamed Ibn Shatir road.

Barycentrism, monsoons and tidal forces in the atmosphere

For India the monsoon is critically important
unlike the West, where there is no such rainy season.
How does one CAUSALLY account for the correlation of monsoons with phenomena
such as El Nino in the antipodal Pacific ocean?

As explained in my book on Indian calendar: scientific aspects
barycentric theory is needed to explain tidal forces
in the atmosphere responsible for the monsoon winds
tidal forces act on antipodal points, and they are luni-solar (moon is more important)

Sawan on luni-solar Indian calendar

We have a very long baseline of observations
that the Indian calendar correctly predicts the monsoon
and this helped to make India a very rich and successful agricultural economy.

But for us, the colonised, science is about western approval, not about explaining observations.
Therefore, we will wait until some Westerner plagiarizes my thesis
like the president of the Royal Society earlier repeatedly plagiarized my correction to Einstein's mistake
or George Joseph and Co.serially verbatim plagiarized my paper on calculus transmission
all with the help of dishonest Western institutions and Indian compradors.

Newton's conceptual confusion about flowing time and fluxions

Newton’s idea of time flow was dismissed as conceptually confused by 8th c. Sri Harsha in his Khanḍaṇa Khanḍa Khādya as conceptually confused
things may flow in time, but if time itself flows
there must be another time, Time2 in which it flows
and so on leading to an infinite regress.
Today called McTaggart's paradox.

Based on his confusion that time itself flows
Newton called calculus the theory of fluxions
This was a confused doctrine which Europeans themselves rejected
from Berkeley to Marx

Dedekind’s real numbers were introduced to fix Newton’s errors
These errors had a theological error in the religious beliefs about mathematics
which were repeated in Dedekind's "solution"
Axiomatic proof rooted in church metaphysics, unlike Indian ganita
This is a long story.

Calculus theft

Newtonian physics relates to calculus:
every problem of Newtonian physics involves solving differential equations
for the last 25 years have pointed out the
evidence on the standard of criminal law that calculus was stolen from India.

Striking similarity

200 years ago, Whish in 1832/5 pointed out the striking similarity
between the infinite series found in India
and the infinite series for arrctan, sine, and π today attributed to Gregory, Newton and Leibniz
How to explain it? But we did nothing for 200 years. Why not? We were waiting for permission from the West.

Theft of calculus

Arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry were all cases of transmission of math from India to Europe
via Muslims who honestly acknowledged their Indian sources
But the cases of calculus, and probability and statistics were a matter of theft
because they went directly to Christian Europe from India.

Europeans claimed "discovery" based on the UTTERLY EVIL 15th c. church dogma of discovery
that any land OR knowledge "belongs" to the first Christian to sight it!
This dogma recently repealed by the pope since its purpose of justifying land and knowledge-theft ACCOMPLISHED
(but still part of British and US law based on it).

Since we ape, we TEACH it in our school texts (NCERT, class XI) that "Newton discovered calculus"
since our education APES THE WEST and we go by Western books and REFUSE to examine facts.

Proof beyond reasonable doubt as in criminal law

Since theft is a criminal offense,
I proposed to use the standard of evidence used in criminal law
Namely, proof beyond reasonable doubt.

(Instead of the usual standard of proof in history, of using "balance of probabilities")

Therefore, as in a murder case, in my 2001 Hawai'i paper I looked at

opportunity : (Jesuits in Cochin in 16th c. gathered and translated local knowledge on Toledo mode)
motivation: (navigational problem, needed correct calendar, precise trigonometric values)
circumstantial evidence (identical infinite series, Fermat's challenge problem, Pascal's triangle, "Euler" method, Tychonic model, Clavius' trigonometric values, Stirling's formula, etc)
documentary evidence (e.g. Ricci letter)
(though no law that a murderer/thief can be convicted only on a signed confession of murder/theft) 😀

To this I added the epistemic test in my book

that the West failed to understand calculus to this day
hence we teach it wrongly,
and I have been trying to repair it over the last two decades as in this forthcoming course at Mysore then IIT.

The tragedy of India

Tragedy is that we (our scientists, AND governments) are mental slaves of those who looted us
looted both knowledge and wealth
"Ours not to reason why/Ours but to ape and die"

Conclusion

Newton’s science deeply entangled with Christian metaphysics
so DON'T say "we did it first"
Indian traditions offer a more empirical, ethical alternative
Upcoming course on calculus as ganita begins 14 July 2025.