'They sought to erase our heritage': EAM Jaishankar says the global ascendancy of Europe was 'dark ages'

EAM S Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar took a sharp swipe at Europe’s colonial legacy and said that the global ascendancy that Europe witnessed was "dark ages" for the rest of the world.

He was speaking at the SAMHiTA Conference. “They came, they saw, and they pillaged. And worst of all, they sought to erase our heritage and traditions," he said.

Further speaking at the conference, the EAM underlined the importance of India shaping the global discourse while deepening its engagement with the world. “As the nation intensifies the process of engagement with the world, there is a really compelling argument for greater intellectual leadership. That leadership is particularly critical to this endeavour,” he said.

Jaishankar further said that "they sought to erase our heritage and traditions". "The legitimacy of British occupation for example was posited on the very denial of an Indian identity. And therefore we had the famous remark of Winston Churchill on India being no more a geographical term than the Equator. For two centuries, the achievements and accomplishments of Indian culture were run down as retrograde, if not worse," he added.

"The myth was perpetuated that India was actually a 'Made in Britain' invention. And that was in a way what the National Movement really fought against. And they fought against it by demonstrating a deep and inherent unity and reviving our skills, our crafts, our products, and our intellectual traditions, and gave us actually the self-confidence to defeat colonialism eventually prevailed. The achievement of independence, however, was a milestone and not a destination. The revival of India as a civilizational state has taken much more than that, and in some ways, I would say its still a work in progress," Jaishankar said during the conference.