The record
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- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India is now 'self-assured and quite unapologetic' and no longer waits for anyone's permission to study its own heritage, speaking at a history prize awards ceremony organised by the Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research.
- She linked intellectual freedom to decolonisation, saying it means rereading inscriptions, studying maritime trade and mathematics, and widening archives, languages and scholarship rather than swapping one prescribed textbook for another.
- She called for thinkers from all perspectives to debate before a public trusted to weigh evidence, and said no establishment should decide beforehand what evidence is allowed.
- She also delivered the SL Bhyrappa Memorial Lecture, honouring the Kannada novelist and philosopher who died in 2025 at the age of 94.
What to watch next
- How India's approach to studying its own history and heritage evolves following the minister's remarks
- Whether scholars from different perspectives are included in historical debates as she urged
- Reactions to her call that no establishment should pre-decide what evidence scholars can access
Who said what2
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Nirmala Sitharaman
2 quotes · 1 outlet
“In 1991, we had our economic independence; it is only now that intellectual freedom is gaining strength...intellectual freedom has to give us the right to know ourselves”
In the article
…freedom gaining strength, India is today “self-assured and quite unapologetic” and has stopped waiting for anyone else’s permission to study its own heritage, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. “ In 1991, we had our economic independence; it is only now that intellectual freedom is gaining strength...intellectual freedom has to give us the right to know ourselves ,” she said while addressing the annual history prize awards ceremony organised by the Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research here. India’s intellectual freedom gaining strength She also pitched for the…
“India today is self-assured and quite unapologetic about it, and we have stopped waiting for anybody else’s permission to study our own heritage”
In the article
…gaining strength She also pitched for the inclusion of thinkers from all perspectives to engage in debate, allowing a clash of ideas before a discerning public that is trusted to weigh the evidence for themselves. “ India today is self-assured and quite unapologetic about it, and we have stopped waiting for anybody else’s permission to study our own heritage ,” she said. “We are reading our inscriptions again, working out our maritime trade, going back to our mathematics and telling these stories with real pleasure, as well as real precision. This, I think, is what…
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Named India · Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research · Nirmala Sitharaman · SL Bhyrappa
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