Ministers, academics to take forward PM Modi’s ‘decolonisation’ call through conferences, monographs

Over the next year, 100 lectures and brainstorming sessions have been planned across the country to discuss different aspects of “decolonisation”, and raise awareness. In keeping with this objective, the lecture series is being called decolonisation literacy. While Union ministers and state BJP leaders are expected to take part in many of these, the campaign sees itself as a purely academic initiative to take forward the PM’s vision without government funding.

Apart from this, 21 monographs, each about 80-100 pages, on different aspects of “decolonisation” will be published. The first monograph will explore the debate on decolonisation in the Constituent Assembly, while the second will discuss the views of intellectuals in the 1950s and 1960s.

Those associated with the campaign say the idea is to raise awareness across the country about the matter, “as very few people understand what decolonisation means”.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji is the first leader of the formerly colonised world who has brought the need to decolonise to the centre of the debate and wants the country to decolonise,” Sinha told The Indian Express.

A political scientist, Sinha has written biographies of RSS founder K B Hedgewar and a book titled Understanding RSS. He is currently working on books on late RSS veteran Dattopant Thengdi, the Sangh, and the freedom struggle.

What PM Modi said on Macaulay

Days ago, the statue of British architect Edwin Lutyens was replaced by one of C Rajagopalachari at Rashtrapati Bhawan, in what is seen as a “move away from mental slavery”. PM Modi had himself announced that this would be done.

As he hoisted the dharma dhwaj atop Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on November 25, PM Modi said, “What Macaulay envisioned was very extensive; we gained Independence but did not free ourselves from a sense of inferiority. Our goal should be to free India from the mentality of slavery in the next 10 years. We must take pride in our heritage, break loose from the mentality of slavery for India to progress.”

He added, “It is a distortion that we borrowed democracy from abroad; India is the mother of democracy.”

While delivering the Sixth Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture in Delhi on November 17, the PM said, “Macaulay broke India’s self-confidence and instilled a sense of inferiority. In one stroke, he discarded thousands of years of India’s knowledge, science, art, culture, and entire way of life.”

That imprint persisted after Independence, Modi continued, as India’s “education, economy, and societal aspirations became increasingly aligned with foreign models.” When a nation does not honour itself, he said, “it ends up rejecting its indigenous ecosystem”.

In January, RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said at the book release of former Organiser editor Tarun Vijay that India needs to discard the Macaulayist mindset to reverse the long-running narrative war against the country.