Union Home Minister Amit Shah said ‘true knowledge is never held hostage by an ideology’ at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai. He called for using the institution’s preserved knowledge to build a ‘Great India’ and criticised colonial ‘Indology’.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that “true knowledge is never held hostage by an ideology” and called for the vast wealth of knowledge and collections preserved by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai to be used for the welfare of the country and the world.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the ‘Ganesh Gyanarthi’ exhibition at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, Shah said knowledge should remain free from ideological constraints and be allowed to develop without restrictions. “True knowledge is never held hostage by an ideology. Knowledge itself is an ideology. If you bind it in any way, you change the very meaning of knowledge. Knowledge should be free and uninhibited, and its declaration should also be free and uninhibited,” Shah said.
Using Knowledge for a ‘Great India’
The Union Home Minister said the focus should now be on using the knowledge, wealth and collections preserved at the institution to contribute to the making of a “Great India”. “Rather than going into why the Asiatic Society was formed, who formed it, and for what purpose, we should move forward in the direction of how the wealth, knowledge, and collections gathered here can be used in the creation of a Great India (Mahaan Bharat),” he said.
Shah said India’s knowledge tradition had survived despite repeated attempts to destroy it, citing the example of Nalanda. “One can burn the library of Nalanda, where smoke rose for months with such intensity, but the knowledge that resides in people’s minds as memory and tradition (Smriti and Shruti)—no one can destroy that knowledge,” he said.
He said nations that preserve their history, memories, values, languages, records and traditions cannot easily be subjugated. “A nation that cannot protect its memories, history, values, language, records, and traditions – no matter how powerful it may be – does not take long to come to an end,” Shah said.
Critique of Colonial ‘Indology’
He also criticised the colonial interpretation of Indian knowledge through the framework of ‘Indology’, saying India’s intellectual traditions were initially studied from a colonial perspective. “India’s knowledge was not being written in India’s voice. India’s knowledge was being written in the language of a colonial perspective,” he said.
According to Shah, such an approach sought to weaken people’s confidence and create an inferiority complex in society. He expressed confidence that the Asiatic Society, under its new leadership, would help preserve and spread India’s knowledge tradition across the country.
“I have heartfelt faith that in the coming days, Asiatic Society Mumbai will act as a bearer of the Indian knowledge tradition and work to spread it across the entire nation,” Shah said.
Shah also said the knowledge preserved by the institution should ultimately serve the welfare of the country, the world and humanity. (ANI)
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