Context:

The Netherlands will hand back hundreds of precious artefacts taken from Indonesia and Sri Lanka during its colonial period.

• Objects to be returned include a gem-encrusted bronze cannon and a looted cache of jewels from the “Lombok treasure”.
• The agreed restitution comes as the Netherlands increasingly confronts its colonial past.

Why are Britishers resisting returning Indian artefacts? 

• Few artefacts and antiquities are returned by Britishers to India, yet, many artefacts are still in their museums including the Kohinoor diamond and the Amaravati stupa.
• • Glasgow became the first United Kingdom museums service to repatriate seven artefacts including a 14th-century Indo-Persian sword and an 11th-century carved stone door jamb taken from a temple in Kanpur.
• Legislation Backing: The British Museum Act 1963 was created to make it illegal to give looted and nicked treasures back.
• Economic Loss: The fear is that if these artefacts were returned, many museums would lose the majority of the objects they have, resulting in economic consequences for the museums. 

Need to Returning of Artefacts:

• Moral Obligation: The return of stolen property or financial reparations are not a substitute for the trauma and the horrors caused by colonialism and faced by Indians. The return of cultural artefacts is a moral obligation.
• Justice: The return of cultural items appears as an image of justice as well as expiates a legal and moral obligation which cannot and should not be ignored. 
  • Flaunting the Kohinoor on the Queen Mother’s crown in the Tower of London is a powerful reminder of the injustices perpetrated by the former imperial power. 
• Easy & Practical Solution: The return of some of the treasures looted from India in the course of colonialism is also a much easier solution than financial reparations would be as the money exacted by the British from India in taxes and exploitation has already been spent, and cannot realistically be reclaimed. 

Significance of Return of Artefacts:

• Preserving Heritage: Cultural property acts as a bridge between the past, present, and future generations, preserving a nation’s heritage.
• National Identity and Pride: It symbolizes the unique values, beliefs, and customs that distinguish one nation from another.
  • It gives people a sense of belonging and collective memory, strengthening social cohesion and unity.
• Tourism and Economic Benefits: Cultural property often attracts tourists from around the world, contributing to the nation’s economy. 
• Employment Generation: The preservation and promotion of cultural property helps in generating employment opportunities. 
• Foreign Policy: The preservation and protection of the Indian artifacts and cultural heritage are an integral component of India’s foreign policy.
• Education and Research: Cultural property provides researchers, scholars, and students with valuable primary sources for studying various disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, history, art, and linguistics.
• Cultural Diplomacy: Cultural property represents a nation’s soft power, which helps in fostering peace, tolerance, and cooperation among diverse communities globally.

Way Forward: 

• Justice: Retrospective justice for colonialism is not answered by financial reparations alone, but by moral atonement.
• Apology: An apology should be expressed to the victims of colonialism.
  • Examples: 
    • Willy Brandt, then Chancellor of Germany, sank to his knees at the Warsaw Ghetto in 1970 to apologize to Polish Jews for the Holocaust.
    • In 2016, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on behalf of Canada for the actions of his country’s authorities in denying permission for the Indian immigrants on the Komagata Maru to land in Vancouver, thereby sending most of them to their deaths.
• Aware Younger Generation: Building a Museum of Colonialism would show a determination, in the metropolitan country, to learn the lessons of the Empire — to teach British schoolchildren what sources of loot, pillage and profit built their homeland, just as German children are shepherded to concentration camps to see the awful reality of what their forefathers did.

Related International Agreements:

• The 1970 UNESCO Convention: On the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property mandate the prevention of organized crime and cultural trafficking, and offer systematic tools to strengthen national capacity.
• UN Resolution 2347: It condemns the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage, including the destruction of religious sites and artefacts, and the looting and smuggling of cultural property from archaeological sites, museums, libraries, archives, and other sites, notably by terrorist groups.

Conclusion

• As pointed out by the UNESCO 1970 Convention that solely it will not tackle this issue, it should be the collective efforts of the governments, societies, communities, and the people to spread awareness regarding the importance of national and cultural heritage and how to safeguard them. 
• History belongs in the past but understanding it, and doing whatever we can about it, is the duty of the present.

News Source: The Hindu