lucknow epics like the mahabharata and the ramayana should be taught not as religious books but as literature the intrinsic wisdom of the epics should help bridge the communal divide said author and congress mp shashi tharoor who was in the city to deliver a talk on his latest book an era of darkness at the international literary conference on cultures of new india at shri ramswaroop memorial university on saturdayon being asked how relevant it was to make school kids study shakespeare a legacy of the british raj tharoor said teach shakespeare but give equal importance to the works of sanskrit poet and playwright kalidasa who was no less a writer than any other greats of the world by keeping kalidasa out of syllabus we are depriving the new generation of an important part of our culture and identity he addedtharoor also dwelt in detail on the the nehruvian legacy adverse impact of the british rule and the real history of india congress mp from thiruvananthapuram said fanatics in the country are undermining the accomplishments of ancient india through their distorted versions of history historically india has been quite advanced in the fields of engineering and medicine too ayurveda and aryabhattas contribution to mathematics are some of the welldocumented and proven aspects of our ancient prowess in these fields the congress mp saidjawaharlal nehru strengthened it further that too amid handling a fledgling economy and democracy he pointed out tharoor denounced the present bjp governments effort to write off nehrus legacy isros latest feat of having launched 104 satellites in one go is indeed a testimony to the strong scientific foundation laid down by nehru he said by way of exampleto bolster his point tharoor quoted from the speech by former pm atal bihari vajpayee on the demise of nehru in 1964 vajpayee had acknowledged in glowing terms nehrus contribution to the building of a new india