FINAL DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED IN SEPTEMBER 2017 @ NATIONAL ARCHIVES

MARITIME MUSEUMS : LONDON TEACHES INDIA

LESSONS FROM LONDON

N.NANDHIVARMAN

 The British people who once claimed that sun never sets in their kingdom have seen that their glory never faces dusk. The way followed by those who ruled India once must awaken our spirits to preserve our past as they do. London founded by Romans in 43 A.D had been the home of monarchs and governments since 1066. Of many places of tourist interest in London the Westminster Abbey is where for nearly 900 years every King or Queen of England had been crowned and many monarchs are buried there.

 Britain for centuries was a sea power and in Greenwich, which is 8 kilometers downstream from London Bridge, there is a National Maritime Museum wherein history and relics of the 500-year maritime history is kept preserved. Indians were early sea- farers and centuries before others they navigated around the globe. Yet in India we never preserve our maritime records and history. In fact at 12 major ports at least our country must have maritime museums. Greenwich is famous for being the time-keeper of the globe. The prime meridian of zero longitude, the imaginary line which links the north and south poles was fixed at Greenwich in 1844 and is marked by a plate on the path. A visitor can claim to be straddling the two halves of the globe by placing a foot on either side of the line. We know laksman reka but we are not aware of Greenwich reka.

 The White Tower of London built by William the Conqueror (1066-1087) has served as royal palace, fortress, prison and place of execution. It also houses the world famous British crown jewels. The Imperial State Crown made for the coronation of George VI in 1937 was altered for Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It is set with 2868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 5 rubies and 273 pearls. The famous Koh-i-noor diamond from India adorns the British crown.

 The tower bridge is a miracle of hydraulic engineering. Sir Horace Jones designed it along with Sir John Wolfe Barry. The 1000 tonne drawbridges are raised to allow tall ships to pass between its twin gothic style towers. The construction started in 1886 and completed in 1894 at a cost of 800,000 pounds. The towers are connected by a 142 feet walkway. Such landmarks are necessary to make any Indian town or city as exciting as London. The River Thames of London stands in contrast with River Coovum of Chennai as extreme poles, the former with its scenic beauty and latter with its stinking nasty.

 The name London itself was derived from a Celtic word Llyn-din which means river place. In India we call rivers holy yet we fail to keep them clean. Civilizations grew in riverbanks all over the world. We have our Indus valley civilization with sanitation and planned cities 2000 years ago. Yet now if we look at our cities and its garbage mountains, we have to think to stem the rot before it is too late. The lessons from a London walk are many.

Michael M.Antony near wax statues

The 18 th century Prime Minister William Pitt described the capitals parks as lungs of London. Saint James Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, Regents Park, Battersea Park, Greenwich Park are some of the lungs that purify the air of London but also remain everlasting attraction to tourists. With much fanfare about tourism promotion except in Delhi and Bangalore we cannot boast of Parks and Chennai remains pathetic in this regard. The amusement parks at east coast road may have tried to attract tourists, but what about corporation parks and spaces left for parks for various colonies, one must ponder over. The exciting London visit must educate our planners to make our cities as excitable, otherwise we will not become one among the developed world.

Courtesy: The New Indian Express weekend 5.02.2005

THE WALES AND PONDICHERRY CONNECTION

THE WALES CONNECTION

N.NANDHIVARMAN

  Pondicherry is a place, which attracts peoples of various cultures and from Pondicherry a bright student, went to Wales for higher studies in law. He came back deeply impressed by the Welsh culture. Everyone thinks that English is spoken all over England, yet there remains Wales, where people are proud of their regional culture. Cardiff is the capitol of Wales since 1955 and a place of government from 1999 with the opening of the devolved Welsh assembly government. It has a population of 3,25,000. and out of this 5% speak Welsh one of the oldest languages in Europe. Cardiff University where the Pondicherrian Michael.M.Antony went to study his LL.M has given due place to welsh tongue too, thus bilingual publications are common sight there. And Cardiff University is a place that promotes research. Among the 106 universities and colleges of United Kingdom, Cardiff was placed 7 th by a study.

 To protect its regional culture the Museum of Welsh life was opened on 7 th July 1948. It is one of the Europe’s foremost open-air museums. The last 500-year history of Wales is depicted in all its facets at the St.Fagans Castle, a 16 th century fort. The statues of wax will make us believe that we are in the presence of the Late Personalities, as could be seen in pictures where Antony will be with Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana and Mahatma Gandhi. “This museum teaches us on how our Arikamedu museum in Pondicherry should be constructed to be a living demonstration of the bygone centuries. As you all know people who have read about Arikamedu and its archaeological excavations of a hoary past go disillusioned after their visit to that site, since a damaged building and some shrubs and bushes alone remain to be seen. The model of National museum of Wales if emulated and an open air museum is set up it will promote our tourism,” opines M.M.Antony. The present government has acquired land to set up a site museum. The dynamic Minister for Tourism of Government of Pondicherry K.Lakshminarayanan is determined to make Arikamedu Museum a memorable experience for tourists who throng to Pondicherry. And in this hour comes this suggestion from a student of Pondicherry. 

Aerial view of Wales

 M.M.Antony during his studies at Cardiff University brought out a beautiful book titled “ Environmental Liability: The stretch of company directors accountability in the United Kingdom”. He became interested in the subject inspired by the words of a British Minister.“ It is not acceptable for a company to make highly priced goods for highly paid consumers in the developed world by ruining the health of the children in the sweatshops of the developing world. It is not acceptable for a company to make beautiful furniture for the homes of rich families in the west but leave a devastated forest landscape in Brazil” said then Minister for Corporate Social Responsibility and Member of Parliament Douglas Alexander.

 Since India is facing lot of environmental problems M.M.Antony applied his mind on researching in environmental law. His forays into the subject made him analyze the impact of European Community’s environmental laws and that of the USA and UK.

With such rich experience gained at Cardiff University, he could have opted for a good job overseas, yet he chose to be in India. As only son born after 16 years of wed lock he is even now mummy’s child deeply attached to his mother Mercy and a possessive father K.M.S.Devadasan eager to groom his son in his mould as a fire brand journalist editing the only bi lingual weekly of Pondicherry appearing since 1966.

courtesy : The New Indian Express-week end 29.01.2005