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Tag: colonialism

  • Rajnath blames overseas rule for Indians’ lack of know-how of ‘glorious past’

    By PTI

    DEHRADUN:  Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday stated three centuries of British rule had prevented Indians from studying about their wonderful traditions.

    “A strong awareness of the country’s glorious past, its great cultural and spiritual legacy is a must for today’s youth to build a strong India,” Singh stated addressing the convocation of the Swami Ram Himalayan University right here.

    The minister stated worldwide acceptance of India’s non secular and mental supremacy previously was spontaneous and cited Chinese students who acknowledged India’s path-breaking position in varied realms of information.

    Quoting one of many Chinese intellectuals, Singh stated, “India was China’s teacher in quadratic equation, grammar and phonetics.”

    Referring to a former Peking University vice-chancellor who subsequently represented China on the United Nations, he stated, “India has dominated China culturally for more than 2,000 years without sending a single soldier.”

    Quoting French thinker Voltaire, Singh stated he used to say, “Everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges.”

    The Union minister stated Indonesia, which is principally an Islamic nation, and Thailand, which is Buddhist, have given recognition to the Ramayana as a part of their very own cultural heritage.

    He requested college students conferred levels on the convocation to do not forget that they belong to an excellent nation and dedicate all their information to nation-building and social betterment. He additionally appealed to the scholars to continue learning all their lives and by no means be afraid of failure. “Our failures should not drive us to despair, we should learn from them and move on,” Singh stated.

    The minister additionally warned the scholars of the risks of consumerism which, he stated, pushes individuals in direction of a tradition of “use and throw.” The “growing” tendency amongst children within the nation to place their dad and mom in outdated age properties is a consequence of consumerism, an idea that got here from the West, he stated.

    “We in India are talking of old age homes? What is happening to the society? “People of a rustic which gave the idea of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one household) to the world are speaking of outdated age properties. Parents are subsequent to God,” Singh stated, asking the scholars to revere them.

    DEHRADUN:  Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday stated three centuries of British rule had prevented Indians from studying about their wonderful traditions.

    “A strong awareness of the country’s glorious past, its great cultural and spiritual legacy is a must for today’s youth to build a strong India,” Singh stated addressing the convocation of the Swami Ram Himalayan University right here.

    The minister stated worldwide acceptance of India’s non secular and mental supremacy previously was spontaneous and cited Chinese students who acknowledged India’s path-breaking position in varied realms of information.

    Quoting one of many Chinese intellectuals, Singh stated, “India was China’s teacher in quadratic equation, grammar and phonetics.”

    Referring to a former Peking University vice-chancellor who subsequently represented China on the United Nations, he stated, “India has dominated China culturally for more than 2,000 years without sending a single soldier.”

    Quoting French thinker Voltaire, Singh stated he used to say, “Everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges.”

    The Union minister stated Indonesia, which is principally an Islamic nation, and Thailand, which is Buddhist, have given recognition to the Ramayana as a part of their very own cultural heritage.

    He requested college students conferred levels on the convocation to do not forget that they belong to an excellent nation and dedicate all their information to nation-building and social betterment. He additionally appealed to the scholars to continue learning all their lives and by no means be afraid of failure. “Our failures should not drive us to despair, we should learn from them and move on,” Singh stated.

    The minister additionally warned the scholars of the risks of consumerism which, he stated, pushes individuals in direction of a tradition of “use and throw.” The “growing” tendency amongst children within the nation to place their dad and mom in outdated age properties is a consequence of consumerism, an idea that got here from the West, he stated.

    “We in India are talking of old age homes? What is happening to the society? “People of a rustic which gave the idea of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one household) to the world are speaking of outdated age properties. Parents are subsequent to God,” Singh stated, asking the scholars to revere them.

  • University of Cambridge says it gained from slave commerce

    Britain’s University of Cambridge mentioned on Thursday it had benefited from the proceeds of slavery over its historical past, and promised to broaden scholarships for Black college students and fund extra analysis into the murderous commerce.

    The acknowledgement comes as a string of main establishments – from the Bank of England to the Church of England – have been re-evaluating the central position that slavery had in enriching Britain and the way they benefited from its injustices.

    Cambridge mentioned an investigation it commissioned had discovered no proof that the college itself ever owned slaves or plantations immediately. But the findings confirmed it had acquired “significant benefits” from slavery.

    Those got here from college benefactors who had made their cash from the slave commerce, the college’s investments in firms that participated in it, and charges from plantation-owning households, based on the investigation’s report.

    Researchers discovered that fellows from Cambridge schools had been concerned with the East India Company, whereas buyers within the Royal African Company additionally had hyperlinks to Cambridge – two firms each lively within the slave commerce.

    The college additionally acquired donations from buyers in each firms, and in addition immediately invested in one other firm lively within the slave commerce, the South Sea Company, based on the paper, which was produced by a bunch of Cambridge teachers.

    “Such financial involvement both helped to facilitate the slave trade and brought very significant financial benefits to Cambridge,” the Legacies of Enslavement report mentioned.

    It additionally mentioned that whereas notable abolitionists corresponding to William Wilberforce had been educated at Cambridge and developed their campaigns there, their full legacy wanted to be examined additional, whereas distinguished members of the college additionally defended the mental underpinnings of the slave commerce.

    HISTORIC WRONGS

    Several individuals are additionally memorialised on the college regardless of their involvement, the report mentioned.

    A statue to William Pitt the Younger, a member of parliament for the college who was prime minister on the finish of the 18th century, makes no reference to his efforts to stall abolitionism or to revive slavery in Haiti after the revolution there.

    Meanwhile the Fitzwilliam Museum was based with cash and art work inherited from a governor of the South Sea Company.

    In response to the report, the college mentioned the museum would maintain an exhibition on slavery and energy in 2023, whereas Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology had really useful that its Benin Bronzes, taken in a violent navy marketing campaign within the nineteenth century from a territory that later turned a part of modern-day Nigeria, are returned.

    One Cambridge faculty handed again one other Benin Bronze final 12 months, as did Aberdeen University in Scotland.

    Other British establishments are additionally taking a look at their collections. The Bank of England mentioned in August it was taking down artwork depicting former governors with hyperlinks to slavery.

    Cambridge may also arrange a devoted centre to analysis the legacies of enslavement, deepen ties with universities within the Caribbean and Africa and improve postgraduate scholarships for Black British college students in addition to these from Africa and the Caribbean, the college mentioned.

    It builds on a scholarship arrange by rapper Stormzy, who in 2018 mentioned he would fund locations for Black British college students after criticism that the college didn’t do sufficient to make sure variety.

    The college mentioned it had additionally acquired a donation to fee a Black British artist to memorialise Black Cambridge students, and can set up explanatory plaques to contextualise older statues of these related to the slave commerce.

    “It is not in our gift to right historic wrongs, but we can begin by acknowledging them,” Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope mentioned in response to the report.

    “Having unearthed our university’s links to an appalling history of abuse, the report encourages us to work even harder to address current inequalities – particularly those related to the experiences of Black communities.”

  • Colonial looted artwork: Namibia recovers 23 objects from Germany

    An enormous mural in Windhoek’s Independence Memorial Museum, depicting members of the Namibian People’s Liberation Army (PLAN) blowing their horns as they assault the colonial masters’ troops, offered a celebratory backdrop because the Namibian-German delegation proudly introduced the return of 23 objects from the gathering of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin to Namibia.

    “According to our records, the 23 pieces were obtained between 1860 and 1890,” defined Nehao Kautondokwa, chairperson of the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN), as she offered the reveals to the Namibian public for the primary time, collectively along with her colleagues from the Ethnological Museum, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the University of Namibia (UNAM), who have been all a part of the scientific cooperation challenge “Confronting Colonial Pasts, Envisioning Creative Futures.”

    The items are on a regular basis objects, together with jewellery and garments. There is even a kids’s doll. “Every Namibian is represented through these items. That was one of the selection criteria,” provides Kautondokwa.

    A gaggle of group representatives, artists, researchers and museum specialists from Namibia was fashioned to pick out the objects between 2019 and 2020.

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    One of them was Ndapewoshali Ashipala, the performing Namibian Museums Association director. Taking half within the challenge was a wake-up name for her, she advised DW: “You look at an object and they say it belongs to one of the communities in the country. But you’ve never seen anything like it before!” She mentioned that these experiences motivated her to check historical past, specializing in beforehand unknown commerce relations between the Namibian ethnic teams.

    Preparing for future returns

    Goodman Gwasira, a lecturer at UNAM, which is one other challenge accomplice, takes delight in such tales. At the press convention, he defined how the colonial period incapacitated folks in Africa.

    He added that the cooperation challenge will now assist Namibia develop native specialists and coaching packages to take care of such traditionally helpful objects. The objective can also be to organize for future returns, Gwasira mentioned.

    Namibia might not but be prepared to just accept the estimated 12,000 Namibian objects from European museums, however as Gwasira rhetorically requested, “How prepared were the Europeans when they looted the items in the first place?”

    He known as on the challenge companions to proceed working collectively to create the mandatory buildings in Namibia.

    “The colleagues in Namibia are just as interested in preserving the objects as we were,” emphasised the director of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, Lars-Christian Koch.

    Restitution or only a mortgage?

    It is greater than a query of creating preservation capacities. The restitution of Namibian cultural property has all the time been a extremely emotional situation.

    A current case was the restitution of the Bible and the whip of the Namibian people hero Hendrik Witbooi in early 2019, which was accompanied by a dispute on which authorities within the nation ought to be receiving them.

    Now the return of the 23 objects have additionally triggered criticism on social media, as a result of strictly talking, it’s not a return, however only a mortgage.

    However, in accordance with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the time period was chosen for purely bureaucratic causes. A mortgage may very well be determined extra rapidly by the muse, so the cooperation companions initially agreed on a “permanent loan.”

    “The pieces that are supposed to stay here will stay here. And that definitely applies to the 23 objects,” Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation President Hermann Parzinger advised DW in Windhoek.

    The board of trustees will meet in June, when they may set up the phrases for an official return. “Then the Namibian side has to reclaim the items, but the process will be relatively simple since the objects are already in the country,” added museum director Koch.

    ‘Rewriting history from a Namibian perspective’

    Meanwhile, Namibia is now about to start the analysis course of on the 23 reveals at the moment housed within the National Museum of Namibia.

    According to the Namibian companions’ needs, the general public also needs to be concerned within the course of to presumably uncover information about Namibia’s cultural heritage that has maybe already been forgotten.

    “We want to rewrite the history surrounding the artifacts from a Namibian perspective, to explore the true origins and meaning of the pieces,” defined Nehao Kautondokwa, chairperson of the Museums Association of Namibia.

    The challenge will run till 2024. During the press convention in Windhoek, nevertheless, it turned clear that different cultural property from Germany also needs to be returned to Namibia sooner or later.

    And in accordance with the desires of Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the reveals may sooner or later journey again in the other way once more: “In many countries in the world, an exchange of items on loan is quite normal. Why shouldn’t it be the same with Namibia?”

    This article was initially written in German.