Madhya Pradesh's newly appointed Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday claimed that the Prime Meridian, the line of longitude that is used as the global reference for time, passes through Ujjain. Yadav also asserted that 300 years back, India was the country to set the world's standard time and Ujjain also possessed an instrument required for ascertaining the world time.
"India's standard time was known in the world some 300 years ago. However, Paris started to set the time and later, it was adopted by the British, who considered Greenwich the Prime Meridian", Yadav said.
During his state assembly monologue that opposed westernization, Yadav asserted his government in Madhya Pradesh would work to shift the Prime Meridian from Greenwich in England to Ujjain.
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Moreover, he also raised questions regarding the Western concept of beginning a new day at midnight, saying, "No one begins their day at midnight. People either wake up with sunrise or some time later."
"Our government is working to prove that Ujjain is the global Prime Meridian and we will push to correct the time of the world," Yadav said.
Ancient Hindu astronomical belief suggest that Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain was once considered India's central meridian and the city determined the country’s time zones and time differences.
It is also considered as the basis of time in the Hindu calendar.
