The Geometry of Belonging
Shelley Walia | 15 November 2025 | The Telegraph
The mathematician, Manjul Bhargava, Fields Medal winner and professor at Princeton, delivered a lecture in India that has since stirred no small amount of controversy. Dressed in kurta-pyjama, a sartorial choice that some read as a subtle nod to the cultural politics of the far-Right, he argued that schools across the world should move away from teaching colonial history and, instead, highlight the history of science as it originated in Indian texts and scriptures.
Bhargava’s proposition precipitated a paradigmatic schism, dichotomising perspectives on the narrative of mathematical history. On the one hand, his advocacy for a recalibration of the dominant Eurocentric discourse, which privileges ancient Greece as the foundational locus of mathematical inquiry, resonated with those seeking to rectify historical injustices and acknowledge the substantial contributions of Indian mathematicians. Conversely, his suggestion was perceived by others, including myself, as perilously proximate to a right-wing ideological agenda that instrumentalises selective historical narratives to assert cultural hegemony. When intellectual assertions regarding heritage converge with the rhetorical tropes of political leadership, the distinction between impartial scholarship and politically expedient appropriation becomes increasingly tenuous…