परम आदरणीय श्री बनवारीलाल पुरोहित जी, मैं समझता हूं, नाम ही काफी है। The tiger is roaring still in mid-80s like a young man.
There can be many caveats, but I take his sentiments as blessings. These will motivate me, inspire me to engage in my activity, keeping the nation and its culture always in mind.
His association with a number of institutions is remarkable for his dedication, his commitment, and selfless service. It has been my good fortune to be at such institutions including Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. An institutions in Nagpur, I was overwhelmed by this success story. मेरे मन में कोई शंका नहीं है, बहुत ही कम समय में यह शानदार भवन मूर्त रूप ले लेगा। What is so remarkable is that the building is in sync with the ethos of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Behind your smile there is iron man, आपने जो आज बात कही है, सोमनाथ मंदिर के बारे में जो ऐतिहासिक विवरण दिया है, वह आज के दिन हर भारतीय को याद रखना होगा। हर भारतीय का दिल छू गया है। एक वह कालखंड था, जहां राष्ट्रपति को ऐसा निर्देश दिया गया, जिसका हमारी संस्कृति में कोई स्थान नहीं। Secular शब्द की व्याख्या करने के लिए Indology में गोता लगाना पड़ता है। इसके लिए विदेशी पढ़ाई काम नहीं आती। ऐसा नेक काम इस प्रांगण में हो रहा है। यह आप और हम सबके लिए बहुत अच्छा है, क्योंकि यह दिल्ली में हो रहा है और इसकी सबसे ज्यादा आवश्यकता दिल्ली में है। उन लोगों के लिए है, जो ज्यादा दिल्ली में वास करते हैं शासन-प्रशासन के ऊपर उनका कड़ा प्रभाव है।
Esteemed guests, I never thought in my life I will be so honoured to lay the foundation stone of an institution connected with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and that would be with respect to Indology. Nandlal Nawal Centre for Indology, This will take us a long way.
It is a befitting occasion and this has already been awaited by Purohitji. To pay our tributes to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and its visionary founder, Dr. K. M. Munshi. In preserving, promoting Indian culture and knowledge systems. It was not easy, people were carried away by Western ideas. Foreign education was taken synonymous with wisdom and knowledge, we had mistaken souls around. In that environment, he visualised a thought process which now has blossomed into an institution of international prominence.
In 1938, imagine the contemporary scenario then, there were headwinds, difficult terrain and the initiative was taken. Truly, as visualised by the great man and his colleagues, the institution has been a pioneering institution and a beacon in the field of education, culture, and arts. Dr. Munshiji, as a statesman, writer, and freedom fighter, dedicated himself to reviving India's unparalleled heritage and culture, Somnath is one instance.
He uniquely merged Indic traditions with modernity, defending heritage while others in governance favoured Western ideologies. I am sure the Indian Prime Minister must have got a taste of commitment of Dr. Munshiji when his thought process was grounded by the presence of the then first president of India, Rajendra Prasad, at Somnath Temple.
Bharati Vidyabhavan's efforts in promoting classical languages, publishing ancient texts, and fostering a sense of unity in India's heritage have been seminally instrumental in nurturing the spirit of Indology and keeping it alive.
Friends, distinguished audience, time now to ensure our heritage thrives and blossoms. There couldn't be a more opportune time.
Distinguished audience, this day is much beyond just laying the foundation stone of Nandlal Nuwal Centre for Indology. In a sense, it is seeding of a transformative journey to rediscover, reassert, reinvigorate the profound intellectual and cultural heritage that has defined India for millennia. For over 5,000 years, we have worked on a mechanism the world is now recognising, let us be aware of it. While millions soothingly worship, defy, and take pride in such initiatives, there is a minuscule category that seeks to defy and denigrate it.
Our passion for our culture, its heritage must ever inflame us with mission and zeal to continually nurture this unique wealth found only in Bharat. This centre, friends, heralds transformation to rediscover India's millennial legacy despite minimal opposition. When a civilisation rediscovers its roots through indigenous lands, it doesn't just survive, it illuminates the world's future.
We as a nation are destined to contribute to world peace and harmony. This nation stands uniquely for the well-being of all, encapsulated in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. This groundbreaking ceremony shows our resolve and our supreme resolve to preserve knowledge in texts and traditions.
Indology is timeless wisdom expanse with deeper meanings bearing contemporary relevance. It will take me hours to reflect on it. Much of the problems we are facing today would get resolution, and the resolution will be fast-tracked once we keep Indology in mind.
This addresses fundamental questions about existence, environment, hazard is one, ethics, look at the lowering of standards, governance, it has to be people-centric, health, it has to be universal, and environment, we don't have another planet to cohabit, all of us are aware.
Distinguished audience, it is wholesome. India is now on the way to reclaiming its brilliance drawing from Udantpuri, Takshashila, Vikramashila, Sompura, Nalanda, Valabhi, and many more. Time has come for us to revisit our thoughts, rededicate ourselves. Let us inflame that aura now by having such institutions doting various parts of our country. This centre is one such step in that direction.
I beseech our youth to take pride in India's mathematical contributions, zero, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. When we reflect on our wealth, gold mine, Charak Samhita, Sushruta Samhita, inspired holistic healthcare and sustainable living, our Atharvaveda is encyclopaedic when it comes to our health concerns. Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism showcase India's inclusive philosophical traditions. What a travesty!
The ignorant are trying to make us aware about inclusivity by their narrow-minded approach. The philosophical schools of Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism, and others have always encouraged dialogue and coexistence. Principles that hold immense value in today's polarised world. Indology decolonises all of us as seen in replacing and I was part of the system.
We unshackled ourselves from colonial legacy, colonial mindset, when we traversed from Danda Vidhan to Nyaya Vidhan . It was a small but the message was large.
The budget of this country now is declared to the country at 11 a.m. Not at that time suited to others. Our history's first draft came through colonisers' distorted perspective. Thousands had contributed to the freedom movement, they made supreme sacrifice but when history was scripted, dotted by perversion, prejudice, only to promote few. This was allowed to take roots after independence.
Distinguished audience, you are aware, no country in the world has risen by studying and interpreting history and tradition written by others. I feel deeply anguished, to admit that the first draft of our history was written by colonisers, who had very perverse lens of seeing India's texts and traditions. Their one motto was to keep our celebrated figures who laid their lives made supreme sacrifice away from historical mention.
Colonial rule imposed an external framework on our education system and not only that, contemptuously they dismissed indigenous traditions as unscientific and irrelevant. It was their mental gap, myopic thought. They couldn't appreciate the depth of knowledge and science and rationality in our process. This not only alienated Indians from intellectual roots, but also disrupted the organic evolution of knowledge system that has flourished for millennia.
Thousands of years of hard work, gold mines of knowledge and wisdom were sidelined. We are at that phase of history after independence. If I may say so, no civilisation in the world has been so stressed, subjected to severe extreme stress and distortions, myths and outright lies and untruths as ours. This is a tragedy and travesty of unimaginable proportions. An attempt was made to undo 5000 years of evolution of India's collective consciousness such like centres would now be nerve centres, epicentres of a positive change.
Post-independence, after a small period of national history, we again got a bunch of Indologists and historical who used European social theorists to read and understand India's past. As a student, when I wanted to go through history, one author cropped up. Late in my evening, I know what was being fed was not good for the nation, was not good for my intellectual absorption but such authors, I don't want to name, were celebrated. They were accoladed, they were applauded, some of them were promoted to subserve views and not their academic expertise. They were so far distanced from our classical languages, Sanskrit, Prakrit and nine others, which we have so far declared 11 in number.
Their sinister effort, pernicious design, was lent wings by the aid from the west. Army Institution also, they produced sepoys that were not working for us and claimed to represent us. They would reiterate only colonial superiority, colonial frameworks, not realising organic, pristine, substantial depth of our knowledge. Therefore, when people say there are snakes in Ganga, I believe.
A civilisation needs indigenous lens to understand itself, as much as a child needs mother's milk, we need to absolve ourselves from the original sin of outsourcing history. This centre is one such step. True decolonisation begins when we stop being footnotes in others' narrative and become authors of our renaissance.
The resurrection of our heritage begins with integrating classical texts like Bhagavad Gita and Arthashastra into mainstream education. Why not? Imagine the worth of these scriptures, their texts. The enlightenment you get by just reading, understanding, will make you get into a different sublime mould.
The Renaissance of our culture requires renewed focus on our classical languages and fortunately that number is now 11. Government recognition of classical languages marks an important step as a way forward stance.
This additional emphasis on India's ancient languages and its literature will revive not only the languages, but also revive the dormant in us and open our gateways to the past. I have no doubt this centre, with the kind of infrastructure it will have, the kind of dedicated human resource it has, will be performing game-changing work. It's a momentous occasion from that perspective, a new milestone that will create an edifice we are looking forward to the nation after more than three decades and getting thousands of could evolve National Education Policy in 2022. There you'll find integration of Indian knowledge system and there's a watershed moment in our educational scenario.
Distinguished audience, nurturing this moment requires responsibility beyond governmental frameworks. Let's not look to the government for it. Each individual is capable to make a contribution so I urge the youth in the country, I urge you to embrace you heritage with pride and curiosity. Take pride because not many countries in the world can claim the kind of cultural heritage we have.
Learn the classical languages, explore ancient texts, and use technology to make this knowledge accessible to a global audience. Our youth is quite competent and capable to take up this challenge. Once they make a beginning, they will thoroughly get involved emotively and otherwise.
Let us create digital library, translate texts and develop platforms where traditional wisdom can interact with modern ideas. As a matter of fact, every modern idea can be read into an idea that existed in our scriptures. Remember, I'm addressing the youth. You are not merely inheritors of this legacy not only torchbearers, you have to work to further nurture and blossom it.
To researcher and academics, I encourage you to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to your studies. The richness of Indian knowledge lies in its interconnectedness. We are not a country in isolation, we take the whole world as one, G20 established it. One earth, one family, one future. The richness of Indian knowledge lies in interconnectedness, welfare of all, for example Yoga, the prime minister made a clarion call at United Nation in the shortest time, the largest number of countries converged to adopt it. Now it is helping people worldwide.
Our earth shastra offers insights into governance, economics and diplomacy that remain relevant today. If the people are aware of governance, if the people are vigilant, trust me, the ecosystem will so evolve that those in authority will automatically get influenced. It is awareness of the people that give democracy its real life but if the people are not aware and are prepared to be governed only, then governance will be of a different kind but you will have governance of the kind you want and desire and are entitled to, only when you are fully exposed to our ancient mechanism of what governance stands for.
Distinguished audience, democratic polity thrives on discourse, expression and discourse are fundamental to democracy. If you do not have right of expression, you cannot claim to be living in a democracy but your expression is incomplete unless you believe in dialogue. Because when you have the dialogue, there may be the other point of view, a point of view that may not be for your taste but sometimes, and I would say more often than not, a dialogue enriches you a dialogue affords an opportunity to be humble not to be self-judgemental, not to believe in a concept, I alone am right. The very concept that an individual can think, I am right, he distances himself from the sublimity and essence of human society because no one has the right to judge that I am alone right, their judgement has to be left to the discretion of the masses. Therefore, I urge the nectar of democracy is consideration of the varying points of view.
Civilizationally, we have been inclusive only for that process. Absence of dialogue, and by dialogue I mean a dialogue where there is no fear, a dialogue where there is freedom, a dialogue where the dialogue will not invite ridicule, a dialogue which will find consideration and not rejection at the drop of a hat, if that dialogue is absent it will be a death knell for at least democratic institutions.
A peep into our ideology will reveal that dialogue and discourse were always favourite when it came to resolution of issues. I would say the only way, and history will prove it right, there have been conflagrations, there have been wars, ultimately the resolution was through dialogue. Absence of dialogue can be apocalyptic, can be very dangerous, can cliff hang a society if dialogue is not there.
This concept emerges from our scriptures, Vedas, Puranas, and look at even our epics. Ramayana Mahabharata and Gita, all indicate predominance of dialogue. There has to be for a person in the country, unqualified belief in nationalism and the spirit to work in togetherness for the nation.
Distinguished audience, some forces that are inimical to the nation and provide recipe for chaos, absolute chaos. They are in every readiness to destabilise our nation, run down its growth, taint its institutions, tarnish the image its great personalities. Such forces have to be neutralised and negated and decimated and that can be done only when the concept of ideology gets widely spread out.
We are at a time when we are marching into the last quarter of the century of our independence, and therefore, we will have to pre-dedicate ourselves with vigour, fervour, passion, and mission to ensure that the sublime principle of Indology take us to a developed nation at 2047. I have no doubt, friends, subscribing to these principles of dialogue, discussion, and expression would also run down the political temperature in the country, which at the moment is worrisome. Offers need to be made by one and all concerned to ensure that dialogue takes place at all levels in democracy. A healthy dialogue and discourse will always go for the nation's welfare.
I have no doubt that this centre will come into existence and fully operational sooner than we think. "Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye" – Knowledge alone liberates. दिक्कत क्या है, कुछ लोगों को यह बात समझ में नहीं आती। समय आ गया है कि जो रास्ता भूल गए हैं, उनके बात समझ में आ जाए। Knowledge alone is our saviour, and knowledge of Indology हमारे लिए बहुत सुखद अनुभव होगा, देश के लिए बहुत अच्छा रहेगा। Our collective resolve matches this monumental task of cultural revival.
Thank you.
