Chennai, Apr 4 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Monday urged art historians to interpret the glorious past of the nation as that could help its resurgence and said the focus should also be on the centuries-old spirituality.

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Emphasising that the resurgence was needed in culture and spirituality, he said the glorious, timeless civilisation has a great role to play in the resurgence. "This country went through a traumatic phase of foreign invasion and colonisation, conscious deliberate attempts to distort, and mischievously destroy its age-old institutions," he said while inaugurating the 29th session of the annual Indian Art History Congress (IAHC) here.

The session with “Indian Iconography with Special Emphasis on Regional Developments” as theme was jointly held by the Indian Arty History Congress, Guwahati, and C P Ramaswami Aiyar Institute of Indological Research (CPRIIR).

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The Governor said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country has been surging forward. "Art historians should interpret our glorious past in ways that help resurgence," he said. Culture has been rooted in spirituality and it is necessary to interpret cultural heritage not only in terms of its architectural and sculptural beauty but also its spirituality, he said.

He said the Indian National Congress, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, on January 26, 1930 passed the resolution that the British must leave Indian soil as foreign rule ruined the country economically, politically, culturally and spiritually. While there had been some emphasis on economic growth, little was done for the restoration of cultural and spiritual glory, he said.

The British government, upon the advice of professor Adam Ferguson of Edinburg University and adviser to the government on colonial affairs, adopted the colonial policy of transfer of as much wealth as possible from India to the UK and destroyed the cultural, spiritual institutions besides the economy of India. "They (British) fabricated India's past in such a way as to make Indians ashamed of their past. The British marshalled their intellectual resources in this regard and justified the colonisation," he said. In August 1852, Karl Marx justified British colonisation of India as a necessary evil and outlined two tasks for the British: Total annihilation of Indian social order and laying the material foundation for a western material civilisation. Professor B R Mani, director-general (retd), National Museum, New Delhi, professor S K Chakravarti, chairman, IAHC, Nanditha Krishna, director, CPRIIR, Dr Darielle Mason, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA, and Dr Choodamani Nandagopal, vice-president, IAHC, were among those who were present on the occasion.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)