ACADEMICIA: An International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

Zero is the most important number in the present number system, without this (zero) no calculation can be done in either discipline of modern Maths and Science. It has been well argued and accepted by the various scholars that it was discovered in India and then migrated to the Western world through Arabian traders. Not only the idea of zero evolved in India but the other nine digits are also the product of ancient Indian minds. Though the Western world calls them the Arabic numbers but the contribution of the great Indian mathematicians can never be neglected and ignored at any point in time. This paper would be an attempt to explore and identify the very beginning of the number system in India particularly in the context of Zero. The historical and philosophical dimensions behind the evolution of Zero in India would also be a matter of serious inquiry in this paper. It would also be an attempt to uncover the politics behind the naming of Indian number systems as Arabic numbers in the post-colonial scientific world.