Decolonisation means presenting full authentic history with Indian perspective: Amit Shah

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Union Minister for Home Affairs and Cooperation, Amit Shah. File | Photo Credit: ANI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday (September 13, 2026) said decolonisation of the country's history and knowledge does not mean erasing the past, but presenting the "historical truth to the world in an authentic manner from an Indian perspective".

Indian knowledge, history, traditions, languages, manuscripts and archives must be preserved and taken to people across the country and the world, Mr. Shah said after inaugurating a manuscript exhibition at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai.

Indian knowledge had, for a long time, been interpreted through a colonial perspective that contributed to creating an inferiority complex, he said and expressed confidence that institutions like the Asiatic Society would help preserve and use it for the welfare of the nation and the world.

Set up in 1804, the Asiatic Society of Mumbai is one of the oldest non-governmental institutions in the city, aimed to encourage the study of research in language, philosophy, arts and natural and social sciences in relation to Asia in general and India, in particular.

Mr. Shah said, "Decolonisation does not mean erasing history. From our perspective, it means presenting historical truth to the world in an authentic manner and from an Indian perspective." The British had intertwined knowledge and power, he said, adding that the task now was to free knowledge from that framework.

"Today, we are moving forward to liberate knowledge from that and towards decolonisation," he added.

A nation that could not protect its memory, history, traditions, culture, languages and archives could not survive for long, irrespective of its power, the senior BJP leader noted.

"But a nation which protects its memory, history, traditions, culture, archives, languages and grammar cannot be enslaved, no matter how many years it remains under foreign rule. India is an example of this," he said.

The Minister said attempts had been made to destroy India's knowledge traditions, but knowledge embedded in people's memory and oral traditions could not be eliminated.

"They could burn the library of Nalanda... but they could not destroy the knowledge that had become embedded in people's minds through memory and oral traditions," he pointed out.

Referring to the discipline of Indology, Mr. Shah said it brought together subjects including history, archaeology, linguistics, philosophy, literature, religion, grammar, anthropology, epigraphy and numismatics.

He, however, said Indian knowledge had for a long time been interpreted through a colonial perspective.