Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah inaugurated the ‘Ganesh Gyanarthi Exhibition’ organised by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai in Mumbai today. On this occasion, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Shri Eknath Shinde, and President of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, along with several other dignitaries were present.

Addressing the programme, Shri Amit Shah said that he has come to the Asiatic Society not as the Home Minister, but as a participant in the movement to carry forward the Indian knowledge tradition for thousands of years. Shri Shah expressed confidence that the Asiatic Society of Mumbai will become a bearer of the Indian knowledge tradition and spread it across the country.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah said that a nation which cannot protect its smriti, history, values, language, records and traditions, no matter how powerful it may be, does not take long to decline; and a nation which protects its smriti, history, traditions, values, records, language and grammar, no matter for how many years it remains enslaved, cannot truly be enslaved by anyone. He said that many forces attempted to erase India’s radiant knowledge, which stood ready to guide the world, but they could not succeed. Shri Shah said that the library of Nalanda can be burned; it can be reduced to ashes with such intensity that smoke rises for months, but the knowledge that has settled in people’s minds in the form of Shruti and Smriti cannot be destroyed by anyone.

Shri Amit Shah said that it is the culture of our country that when we are defeated, we move forward with patience; and when we are victorious, we try to integrate those whom we have conquered into our tradition without destroying their memories. He said that true knowledge is never held hostage by any ideology. Knowledge itself is an ideology; if it is bound in any way, the very meaning of knowledge changes. Shri Shah said that knowledge should be free, uninhibited, and its proclamation should also be free and uninhibited. Therefore, instead of getting entangled in who founded the Asiatic Society and for what purpose, we should look at how the knowledge and collections that lie before us today can be used in the creation of a great India.

Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that to understand the Asiatic Society, one must also understand the term ‘Indology’. Numismatics, epigraphy, morphology, history, archaeology, linguistics, philosophy, literature, theology and grammar — all these together constitute Indology. Its purpose was not the same as that of the Indian knowledge tradition, whose goal is the welfare of the world and the universe. At that time, its objective was to understand the systems here so as to rule over the people of this land for a long period. Shri Shah said that when an external power studies a civilisation, it either studies it or defines it. There is a fundamental difference between the two. When one studies it, one also accepts it and changes oneself. But when one defines it, the question of what the objective of that definition is becomes extremely important. He said that after the term Indology came into existence, this danger remained constant in the initial years.

Shri Amit Shah said that India’s knowledge was not being written in India’s voice. It was being written in the language of the colonial perspective, whose purpose was to create a collective inferiority complex within society and to diminish the self-confidence of our people. He said that when the people’s self-confidence is low, resistance to long-term slavery does not arise. The Home Minister said that the interpretation of the capital of knowledge was also done from that viewpoint, but today the country has become independent. More than eighty years of independence have passed. The government has changed, the committee of the Asiatic Society has also changed, and now there is confidence that this storehouse of knowledge will be used for the welfare of the universe, the world and the country, and ensuring this is the responsibility of the institution’s new committee. Shri Shah said that by understanding the objectives of the Indian knowledge tradition, it must be seen how this knowledge can spread across the country and the entire world and gain acceptance. He said that based on the works of Bharat Ratna Pandit Pandurang Vaman Kane, ‘Kane Samagra’ should be compiled and every single word of it prepared for the coming generation, so that a new generation is built. He said that many such treasures exist in this institution.

Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that the British had intertwined knowledge and power with each other. Our task is to completely separate knowledge and power, so that power is created on the basis of knowledge, and the country is run on that very basis. Creating such a system is the work of the Asiatic Society. He said that it is often said in the country that history is being erased. Shri Shah said that he does not agree with those scholars. The process of decolonisation is not the erasure of history. It means placing history before the people once again in a complete, authentic manner and from an Indian perspective. This is decolonisation, and it must happen. Decolonisation does not mean erasure. Decolonisation means placing the truth before the world for the welfare of the world. Today we have moved towards decolonisation. He said that the Asiatic Society of Mumbai has illustrations of the Mahabharata, the Jain Kalpasutra, and such rare Buddhist texts that should have come out long ago.

Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that Maharashtra is the land of the Saraswats. The primacy and importance of Saraswati are already inherent in the energy of this land. He said that the new team of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai is expected to expand the storehouse of knowledge that lies here. This expansion should take place from three perspectives. He said that the Asiatic Society should expand and the manuscripts available here should be fully linked with the Gyan Bharatam National Manuscript Mission launched by the Government of India. The Asiatic Society should explore the possibility of running a campaign to collect ancestral documents from villages across Maharashtra and from the homes of scholars, and linking them with the Gyan Bharatam Manuscript Survey. He said that research arrangements under the Gyan Bharatam National Manuscript Mission should be considered for all the departments associated with the manuscripts present here. Shri Shah said that research is essential on the vast knowledge contained in the manuscripts. These hold the power to take the country forward. He said that in the first informal meeting of the Gyan Bharatam Manuscript Mission, a Jain monk had said that the seed to make India the best in the world in economic and defence terms is contained in these very manuscripts. Arrangements for research on this must be made.

Shri Amit Shah said that he has told Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri Devendra Fadnavis to empower the Society. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Government of India is providing every possible support and cooperation to the Asiatic Society of Mumbai and will continue to do so in the future. Shri Shah said that all such institutions existing in every village, every town and every state of the country should be linked with the Asiatic Society of Mumbai to create a shared repository of knowledge, so that it becomes available to students, researchers and scholars across the entire country.

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