Pics: Joshwa D'Souza
Daijiworld media network-Mangaluru(JD)
Mangaluru, Jul 12: "Before 1947 the culture of Tulunadu was divided as Brahmanical culture and the non-brahmanical culture. But the representatives of the British East India company considered these as primitive and rejected it," revealed prof Kesavan Veluthat, veteran historian and professor of Delhi University.
He delivered a special lecture on 'Tulunad: Aspects of histpriography' after releasing the book 'Dakshina Kannada After 1947- Some reflections' at the college auditorium of St Aloysius College on Monday Jul 11.
"The colonial East India Company came to India on an evangelical mission. Hence they found both Brahmanical culture and non-brahmanical culture as nonsense and termed Bhootharadhane of non-brahmanical culture as devil's worship and is a primitive way of worshiping God. Hence they imposed Christianity on the people of this land only after they left India. The rich culture of this land came to light," Veluthat explained.
"They termed all these traditions as uncivilized and wanted to civilize the people. Hence this country was portrayed as less civilized."
"Parallel to the mission of the British, Basel Mission significantly contributed to society by documenting traditions, but they did so only because they wanted to learn the local language to communicate to the locals and convey biblical thoughts," he said.
While delivering his presidential address at the formal function, the rector of St Aloysius institutions, Fr Dionysius Vaz said, "As I went through the book I felt that the book reflects the developmental struggle of Dakshina Kannada since 1947. It mainly reflects the developments in the field of education, culture and economy as this place is the cradle of banking. I appreciate the department of history for publishing the book."
Head of the department of history Dr Vishanz Pinto welcomed everyone and briefed about the book.
The book is a collection of reasearch papers presented on the topic 'Dakshina Kannada After 1947' presented by various scholars of history during the national seminar held on February 14 and 15, 2014.