Mumbai: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said decolonisation of the country’s history and knowledge does not mean erasing the past, but presenting the “historical truth to the world in an authentic manner from an Indian perspective”.
Indian knowledge, history, traditions, languages, manuscripts and archives must be preserved and taken to people across the country and the world, Shah said after inaugurating a manuscript exhibition at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai.
Indian knowledge had for a long time been interpreted through a colonial perspective that contributed to creating an inferiority complex, he said and expressed confidence that institutions like the Asiatic Society would help preserve and use it for the welfare of the nation and the world.
Set up in 1804, the Asiatic Society of Mumbai is one of the oldest non-governmental institutions in the city, aimed to encourage the study of research in language, philosophy, arts and natural and social sciences in relation to Asia in general and India, in particular.
Shah said, “Decolonisation does not mean erasing history. From our perspective, it means presenting historical truth to the world in an authentic manner and from an Indian perspective.”
The British had intertwined knowledge and power, he said, adding that the task now was to free knowledge from that framework.
“Today, we are moving forward to liberate knowledge from that and towards decolonisation,” he added.
A nation that could not protect its memory, history, traditions, culture, languages and archives could not survive for long, irrespective of its power, the senior BJP leader noted.
“But a nation which protects its memory, history, traditions, culture, archives, languages and grammar cannot be enslaved, no matter how many years it remains under foreign rule. India is an example of this,” he said.
The minister said attempts had been made to destroy India’s knowledge traditions, but knowledge embedded in people’s memory and oral traditions could not be eliminated.
“They could burn the library of Nalanda… but they could not destroy the knowledge that had become embedded in people’s minds through memory and oral traditions,” he pointed out.
Referring to the discipline of Indology, Shah said it brought together subjects including history, archaeology, linguistics, philosophy, literature, religion, grammar, anthropology, epigraphy and numismatics.
He, however, said Indian knowledge had for a long time been interpreted through a colonial perspective.
“Indian knowledge was not being written in India’s own voice. It was being written from a colonial perspective,” Shah said.
This approach had contributed to creating an inferiority complex among Indians and weakening their confidence, he noted.
According to Shah, the objective of studying Indian society during the colonial period was not the welfare of the world, but to understand the country’s systems and facilitate long-term rule.
The situation had changed after India’s independence, he said, expressing confidence that the knowledge preserved by institutions such as the Asiatic Society would now be used for the welfare of the country and the world.
Shah asked the newly elected committee of the Asiatic Society, headed by BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, to expand access to its vast collection.
He suggested that scholars from Maharashtra and across the country be identified and brought to the Society to conduct research on its collections.
The Union minister also called for digitisation of the Society’s holdings and their electronic sharing with libraries and similar institutions across the country.
He proposed creation of a common platform connecting institutions and libraries preserving India’s heritage, with the Asiatic Society of Mumbai playing a leading role.
Shah also called for manuscripts and ancestral documents lying in homes in villages across Maharashtra to be identified and brought into the ambit of the Gyan Bharatam National Manuscript Mission.
“There is immense knowledge contained in these manuscripts. Research needs to be conducted on them. They can provide great strength for taking the country forward,” he said.
He said manuscripts could contain knowledge that could contribute to India’s economic and strategic progress.
Shah also referred to the collections preserved at the Asiatic Society, including illustrated copies of the Mahabharata, the Jain Kalpasutra and Buddhist texts.
Such material should be made accessible to students and researchers across the country, he added.
Shah said he had requested Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis not only to facilitate the use of the library but also to strengthen the Asiatic Society.
Institutions preserving knowledge in villages, cities and states should ultimately be connected with the Asiatic Society of Mumbai to create a common repository accessible to students and researchers, he opined.
Shah said he had come to the Society not merely as the Union Home Minister but as a participant in the movement to take the Indian knowledge tradition forward for thousands of years.
“I have come here as a campaigner for taking the Indian knowledge tradition forward for thousands of years,” he said.
He expressed his best wishes to the new committee and urged it to take forward the Indian knowledge tradition and use Indology for the welfare of the world.
