IIT Mandi conference mixes science with pseudoscience, scholar warns

A mathematics professor who taught a course on the history of Indian mathematics says a growing challenge is defending Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) from pseudoscience. The scholar wrote in Scroll.in that institutions like IIT Mandi are blurring the line between genuine science and unverified claims, eroding the credibility of scientific research.

The professor cited the IIT Mandi Mind, Brain and Consciousness Conference, held under the Ministry of Education's IKS division, which included sessions on reincarnation, energy chakras, and a theory of quantum emotion alongside legitimate neuroscience. Another paper on Pranic Healing claimed a 114% improvement in anger control. Earlier this year, IIT Madras hosted a keynote that used a NASA sonification as purported proof of the syllable 'Om', and IIT Roorkee announced a study on cow urine for chikungunya that is now under investigation.

The scholar argues that pseudoscientific claims, unlike scientific ones, can never be refuted, and that the shortcut of trusting institutional backing no longer works when the institutions themselves fail to hold the line.