NEW DELHI: Highlighting that the repatriation of antiquities has been the highest in the past 10 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the countries are returning stolen cultural objects because they recognise that India can do justice to them.
He said that repatriations are not driven by sentiment or sympathy but by confidence that India would preserve and elevate their cultural value with dignity. “India has earned the trust of the world.
Today, nations view India as the right place to safeguard and honour cultural heritage. Earlier, only a few stolen Indian idols were returned. But now, hundreds of them are being repatriated… India has become a trusted custodian of heritage in the eyes of the world,” said Modi.
He was speaking at an international conference titled ‘Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy through Manuscript Heritage’ on India’s manuscript heritage on its second day in Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan.
Modi also launched the ‘Gyan Bharatam’ portal, a dedicated digital repository platform that seeks to accelerate digitisation and preservation of the ancient Indian manuscripts and enhance the dissemination of traditional knowledge embedded in them.
The initiative is part of the Gyan Bharatam Mission, announced by the PM, being implemented by the Ministry of Culture. It aims to survey, document, conserve, digitise and make accessible more than one crore manuscripts located at academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collections across the country.
Underlining India’s knowledge, traditions and scientific heritage, Modi said that the Gyan Bharatam Mission is set to become a proclamation of the country’s culture, literature, and consciousness.
“Unlike modern notions of nationhood, India possesses a distinct cultural identity, its own consciousness, and its own soul,” Modi further stated, emphasizing that India’s history is not merely a record of dynastic victories and defeats.
He noted that while the geography of princely states and kingdoms has changed over time, India has remained intact from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean.
He affirmed that India is a living stream, shaped by its thoughts, ideals, and values. “India’s ancient manuscripts reflect the continuous flow of this civilisational journey. They hold a wealth of knowledge across diverse fields, including philosophy and science, medicine and metaphysics, art and astronomy. From mathematics to binary-based computer science, the very foundation of modern scientific advancements is rooted in the concept of zero,” he said.