India
Why no Dalits, minorities on culture panel, Kanimozhi asks Centre, ‘are they ineligible’
New Delhi: Member of Parliament and chief of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party’s Art wing, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, has asked the government of India why it had not included any member of minority communities and Dalits to an expert panel constituted by GoI to study the origin and evolution of Indian culture.
“Shouldn’t minorities and Dalits talk about Indian culture?” she tweeted. “Or are they ineligible?” The panel does not comprise any women either.
இந்திய கலாச்சாரம் குறித்து ஆய்வு செய்ய மத்திய அரசு நியமித்துள்ள குழுவில் ஏன் ஒரு சிறுபான்மையினர் கூட இடம்பெறவில்லை ?
சிறுபான்மையினரோ, தலித்துகளோ, இந்திய கலாச்சாரம் குறித்து பேசக்கூடாதா ? அல்லது அவர்கள் தகுதியற்றவர்களா ? pic.twitter.com/JuM2NtYNUV
— Kanimozhi (கனிமொழி) (@KanimozhiDMK) September 15, 2020
Earlier on September 14, 2020, member of Parliament and the Minister of Culture and Minister of Tourism of India, Prahlad Patel had informed Parliament in a written reply that a 16-member committee was looking into the origin and evolution of Indian culture dating back to around 12,000 years, news agency PTI reported.
Prahlad said the panel comprises of members including archaeologists KN Dikshit, BR Mani and RS Bisht, and retired judge Mukundakam Sharma, would also explore its “interface with the cultures of the world”.
The panel’s members include Sharma was also the chairperson of the government’s committee to review sports governance code, according to The Economic Times. The panel does not include any woman.
Besides this, six other members on the panel are professors or academics who specialise in the study of Sanskrit language and are mostly from Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan and Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit University. The panel also includes Makkhan Lal, a controversial historian who was at the forefront of attempts to saffronise history textbooks in the early 2000s and is linked to a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated think-tank, the report said.
However, the move by GoI has been severely criticised by the citizens for not including representatives from South India, the North East, women researchers and experts from other minority communities on the panel.
This committee constituted by the Govt of India to study Indian Culture is proof if its bigoted, casteist, patriarchal nature. Culture is where the most damage is being done. We are ignoring it at our own peril. https://t.co/Jhcz5jKBVg
— T M Krishna (@tmkrishna) September 15, 2020
In this regard, a Chennai based acclaimed singer TM Krishna said that the committee was proof of the Centre’s “bigoted, casteist, patriarchal nature”. “Culture is where the most damage is being done,” he added. “We are ignoring it at our own peril.”
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