The Hindu : Front Page : Globalisation promotes terrorism: VS

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Monday, Dec 29, 2008
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Globalisation promotes terrorism: VS

Special Correspondent

V.S. Achuthanandan inaugurates 69th Indian History Congress.

KANNUR: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said that perpetrators of terrorism and communalism are trying to undermine secular and composite cultural traditions. Inaugurating the 69th session of the Indian History Congress (IHC) on the Kannur University campus at Mangattuparamba here on Sunday, Mr. Achuthanandan said that terrorism and communalism had caused untold miseries worldwide.

Observing that they posed a grave threat to humanity, he said their practitioners were afraid of the past which upheld humanitarian values nurtured through the interaction of diverse communities. “The Taliban attack on the Buddhist centres in Afghanistan, the demolition of Babri Masjid and the U.S. destruction of historical monuments and cultural heritage of Iraq are examples of this attitude,” the Chief Minister said adding that democracy, and not terrorism, was the answer to fascism.

Terrorism and communalism were promoted by globalisation and liberalisation, he said. While liberal thinkers of the 19th century glorified history as the unfolding of human freedom, globalisation had rendered this concept a meaningless myth, the Chief Minister added.

“We have reached a situation in which no country can stay away from globalisation,” he stated. The Chief Minister said the IHC as a collective of historians had always stood against divisive tendencies such as terrorism, communalism and parochialism. He also recalled the IHC’s tradition of fruitful interaction upholding the ideals of secularism and democracy.

IHC president K.N. Panikkar presided. Historians Irfan Habib and Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Calicult University Vice-Chancellor Anwar Jahan Suberi, M.G. University Vice-Chancellor Rajan Gurukkal, Kannur University Pro Vice-Chancellor K. Kunhikrishnan, M. Prakasan, MLA, and IHC secretary B.P. Sahu were present.

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