India, March 31 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday criticised previous governments for neglecting India's manuscript heritage for political reasons as he inaugurated the Samrat Samprati Museum at Gandhinagar's Koba Teerth, housing over 2,000 rare objects tracing the evolution of Jainism. The museum is dedicated to the Samrat Samprati Maharaj (224-215 BC), a preacher of non-violence.

"After independence, searching for... manuscripts and preserving them should have been a national responsibility. But unfortunately, due to a colonial mindset, no attention was paid to this," said Modi, who is on a day's visit to Gujarat.

"Earlier, such work used to happen through a political lens. How to set the narrative of one political family, ho...