Amit Shah Opens Ganesh Gyanarthi Exhibition, Urges Digitisation of Heritage
Amit Shah inaugurated the Ganesh Gyanarthi Exhibition in Mumbai, calling for digitisation of heritage and a renewed Indian perspective on history.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the 'Ganesh Gyanarthi Exhibition' organised by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai on Saturday, in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Society president Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
Speaking at the event, Shah said he attended not as Home Minister but as a participant in the effort to carry forward India's knowledge tradition, and expressed confidence that the Society would spread that tradition across the country.
He called for knowledge to be digitised and shared with libraries nationwide, and for a common platform linking institutions and libraries that preserve heritage. Noting the Society's association with the Gyan Bharatam National Manuscript Mission, he said it should gather manuscripts scattered across villages and create arrangements for research.
Shah argued that a nation which fails to protect its memory, history, values, language and traditions declines, while one that safeguards them endures even after long periods of subjugation. Attempts to erase India's knowledge had failed, he said, adding that the Nalanda library could be burned but knowledge preserved through Shruti and Smriti could not be destroyed.
He distinguished the purpose of Indology, which he said sought to understand India's systems in order to rule, from the Indian knowledge tradition, whose aim is the welfare of the world. India's knowledge, he added, was long written in a colonial voice that fostered inferiority, and the task now is to separate knowledge from power so that power rests on knowledge.
Rejecting the view that history is being erased, Shah said decolonisation means placing history before people completely, authentically and from an Indian perspective. He cited the Society's illustrations of the Mahabharata, the Jain Kalpasutra and rare Buddhist texts as material that should have been made public earlier.
He also proposed compiling 'Kane Samagra' based on the works of Bharat Ratna Pandurang Vaman Kane, and said Maharashtra, the land of the Saraswats, carries the energy of Saraswati. The Society's new committee, he said, must ensure its storehouse of knowledge serves the country and the world.