Mumbai, Sept. 13 -- Union Home minister Amit Shah has called for renewed efforts to preserve and spread India's intellectual heritage from an Indian perspective, saying the process of decolonisation should not involve erasing history but presenting it in its complete and authentic form.
Shah was speaking after the inauguration of the 'Ganesh Gyanarthi Exhibition' being organised by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Asiatic Society president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe were among those present.
Shah said that nations, which fail to preserve their memory, history, values, languages, records and traditions, eventually become weak, while India's knowledge tradition has withstood the test of time, despite centuries of foreign rule.
India's history and knowledge had been interpreted through a colonial lens, which sought to undermine people's confidence, "Decolonisation does not mean erasure," he said, adding that history should be placed before the world in an authentic manner and from an Indian perspective.
Referring to the Asiatic Society's rare collections, Shah said that manuscripts and works relating to the Mahabharata, Jain Kalpasutra and Buddhist traditions represented an important national knowledge resource.
He urged the Society to leverage its manuscript collections, and tie it up with the government's Gyan Bharatam National Manuscript Mission and embark on a wider campaign to identify and preserve ancestral documents, held in villages and private collections across Maharashtra.
He proposed compiling the complete works of Bharat Ratna Pandurang Vaman Kane and making it accessible to future generations.
The Asiatic Society could play a larger role by connecting similar institutions, across villages, towns and states, to create a shared repository of knowledge, accessible to students, researchers and scholars, Shah said.
The government would give all the support required to strengthen the institution and stress the need to decouple knowledge from power so that national development and governance could be built on the foundation of knowledge, he added.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.