1520 A.D: Disruption & Innovation 500 Years Ago

The past few weeks have been weird for most of us, locked in social isolation and working from home.

In my case, to make most of the situation, I decided to dive into a fascinating series on Innovation and Indian History.

India has given many Innovations to the world — from Board games like Chess, Snakes & Ladders, Parcheesi, Textiles like Cotton, dyes like Indigo, The number Zero, Shampoo, Buttons, Yoga, Ayurveda, Helio-centric Solar System, Kalaripayattu (the Indian precursor to Martial Arts like Kung-fu), Wootz Steel, Diamond mines and countless others.

Every Indian Innovation & Innovator has an origin story.

Much like Covid 19, the project started by the end of 2019 with an innocent attempt to find the translation of the word Innovation in Indian languages & quickly spiraled into an obsession with Indian history — in particular, to trace the recipe for Innovation.

Despite several books & endless research, I was nowhere close to getting a grip on Innovation in Indian history. The more I read into it, the following facts became clear:

• History is fascinating!
• Much of Global History has been told from a Eurocentric perspective.

India has a rich tradition of maintaining its religious and dharmic history, the same cannot be said about India’s Economic History — a vital component of Innovation.

The most personally moving revelation for me has been that Indian history has often been told as a history of Kings, battles, invaders, and conquests. Indian History is portrayed as a story of Indian Isolation. No man is an Island, neither are cultures.

This 500 Years Ago series will look at how Innovation in Indian History is interlinked with World history. When Indian History is understood with European, African, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, and other Global Histories, many things start to make sense — including our place in the world and what we stand to offer.

Which Indian Innovation do you think has had the most impact?