The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Keep politics off academics: Baby

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Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
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Keep politics off academics: Baby

Special Correspondent

Government planning a site museum at Pattanam excavation site

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Education and Culture Minister M.A. Baby has said that there must be a consensus in the public sphere in Kerala on keeping academic activities insulated from political interference.

Inaugurating a national seminar on the Muziriz Heritage Project here on Tuesday to mark World Heritage Week, Mr. Baby pointed out that political interference often hampered academic research. The inability of the Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR) to undertake excavations at Pattanam during the first half of its decade-long existence was a case in point, he said.

Much importance

Mr. Baby said the finds at Pattanam, 25 km north of Kochi city, was of great historical, educational, cultural and tourist importance and noted that Muziriz symbolised a great cultural convergence in ancient times. The site of the excavations were historically and culturally significant because it was the place where St. Thomas is believed to have set foot in the first century AD and which had a strong Muslim cultural presence from early times. Together, these different strands could build a beautiful culture of which Kerala could be proud of, he added.

The Culture Minister said archaeological excavations were not merely meant for unearthing evidences for life in the past. Chairing the session, KCHR chairman K.N. Panikkar said the Pattanam excavations were meant not only to understand the antiquity of the place but also to locate in the larger historical process. The Muziris project was a large project the scope of which goes beyond Pattanam to reconstruct the history of a larger area and link it with other locations of contact, he added.

The inaugural session was followed by presentations by KCHR director P.J. Cherian, Pattanam excavation project co-directors V. Selva Kumar and K. P. Shajan, Roberta Tomber from the British Museum, London, Federico De Romanis, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy, Steven E. Sidebotham, professor, University of Delaware, USA, historian M. R. Raghava Varier and Sunil Gupta, Allahabad Museum.

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