Indian tribes visit UK museum to bring home ancestors' remains, World News
Skulls and other body parts were often brought from Asia, Africa and elsewhere to Britain and to other former colonial powers, as "trophies", to be traded, displayed or studied.
There are growing calls worldwide for such remains, as well as stolen art, to be returned to their communities as part of a centuries-old movement demanding reparations for colonialism and slavery.
Just last month, skulls of 19 African Americans were returned to New Orleans from Germany to where they were sent for examination by phrenology — the now discredited belief that the shape and size of a head shows mental ability and character, especially when applied to different ethnic groups.
Historians say some of the remains were taken by colonial officers from burial sites and battlefields in Nagaland, where for centuries headhunting was common practice. Others were looted in acts of violence.
The Pitt Rivers Museum, which displays collections from Oxford University, holds the world's largest Naga collection, including thousands of artefacts, 41 human remains, primarily skulls, and 178 objects that contain or may contain human hair.
It removed all remains from public display in 2020, including ancestors of Dolly Kikon, an anthropologist from Nagaland's Lotha-Naga tribe, who teaches at the University of California and who travelled to Oxford last week.
"For the first time, there is a Naga delegation (at the museum) to connect and to reclaim our history, our culture and our belongings," Kikon, 49, told Reuters.
Museum director Laura Van Broekhoven said the timing of the return of the remains was still uncertain due to the bureaucracy involved. The museum is also in talks with other groups to facilitate more items being returned.
The 23 Naga representatives, including elders of several tribes, repeated calls by British lawmakers and campaigners for the government to legislate to protect ancestral remains.
Some European countries, such as the Netherlands, have national policies for the repatriation of human remains.
Opponents of reparations argue that contemporary states and institutions should not be held responsible for their past. Advocates say action is needed to address the legacies, such as systemic and structural racism.
"One way to confront the colonial legacy is for indigenous people to be able to tell our own stories," Kikon said.
[[nid:717024]]
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


International Business Times
3 days ago
- International Business Times
Did Captain Sumeet Sabharwal Intentionally Crash Air India Plane? Investigation Focuses on Pilot Who 'Remained Calm' While First Officer 'Panicked'
Investigators examining the Air India crash are focusing on the actions of the captain, who stayed composed while the first officer panicked over a potential fuel cutoff to the engines. Black-box audio indicates it was Captain Sumeet Sabharwal who flipped the switches, according to sources familiar with the U.S. side of the investigation. US pilots reviewing the Indian inquiry believe that First Officer Clive Kunder, who was piloting the plane at the time, was likely preoccupied with keeping the Boeing Dreamliner stable, The Wall Street Journal reported. That responsibility would have left the captain, serving as the monitoring pilot, completely free to oversee the situation and make all necessary adjustments. Flight's Pilot in Focus Captain Sumeet Sabharwal X The official report claims that two vital switches were turned off in quick succession, just one second apart. Both were switched back on ten seconds later. A preliminary transcript of the cockpit conversation shows that one pilot asked the other why he moved the switches, but the second pilot denied doing it. The aircraft crashed near Ahmedabad airport, erupting in flames and killing all but one of the 242 people onboard. Clive Kunder X The report comes after investigators on the pilots' health records, with claims that Sabharwal had a history of depression and mental health concerns. Notably, the switches involved had a locking mechanism that required pilots to lift them before moving —accidentally turning the off is impossible, as they were not simple push buttons. The investigation into the devastating crash has now turned its focus to Sabharwal's behavior. A massive plume of smoke seen billowing from the crash site near the Ahmedabad international airport after teh Air India Flight 171 crashed X Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a leading aviation safety expert in India, revealed that multiple Air India pilots had allegedly confirmed that Sabharwal, an experienced pilot, had suffered from poor mental health. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Ranganathan stated, "He had taken time off from flying in the last three to four years. He had taken medical leave for that." It is also reported that Sabharwal had been on bereavement leave after his mother's death. However, according to Ranganathan, he had been "medically cleared" by Air India before the deadly crash last month. Several Unanswered Questions A former colleague of Sabharwal in Mumbai described him as a "thorough gentleman" and shared with the publication that Sabharwal had been thinking about taking early retirement within the next couple of years to care for his 90-year-old father. The Air India Flight 171 seen after the deadly crash moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad X Meanwhile, co-pilot Clive Kunder, aged 28, had logged over 3,400 flying hours during his relatively brief career. The Telegraph reported that while Air India declined to issue an official statement, a representative from its parent company, Tata Group, told the outlet that Sabharwal had not taken any medical leave. The preliminary investigation report also failed to uncover any major findings. Officials said that both pilots had successfully passed the Class I medical examination within the past two years, a test that assesses their mental and physical fitness. A massive plume of smoke seen billowing from the crash site near the Ahmedabad international airport after teh Air India Flight 171 crashed X On Sunday, Indian authorities released a preliminary report that raised critical questions about why the pilot would have manually shut off the fuel switches — and whether it was an intentional decision or a tragic error. According to the report, "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other: why did he cut off? The other pilot responded that he did not do so." Typically, fuel switches are turned on and off at specific phases of flight, but in this case, they were shut off just after takeoff — and the landing gear had not been retracted. Sumeet Sabharwal X At the time, the co-pilot was handling the takeoff while the captain was acting as the monitoring pilot. The report noted that the switches were turned back to the "run" position just seconds later, initiating the engine restart sequence. One engine did begin to relight but failed to produce sufficient thrust, while the second engine was still in the process of regaining power. When investigators reached the crash site, both switches were found in the "run" position. Sumeet Sabharwal X According to the report, both pilots had received sufficient rest prior to the flight and passed the breath analyzer test, confirming they were 'fit to operate.' The aircraft was not carrying any hazardous materials, and its weight was within the permissible range. Fuel samples taken from the aircraft's tanks were tested and found to be of acceptable quality, and there was no notable bird activity detected along the flight path.


AsiaOne
4 days ago
- AsiaOne
India's river divers risk health in search for hidden treasures, Asia News
NEW DELHI — At the crack of dawn, Ramu Gupta slings a blue bag onto his shoulder and heads to the Yamuna River in the Indian capital in search of his fortune. The 67-year-old is one of hundreds of gotakhors, or divers, who go to the river to hunt for coins, trinkets, discarded bottles and shards of metal and wood that can be sold in Delhi's booming scrap market. "I earn approximately 5,000 Indian rupees (S$74.75) in a month from this," said Gupta, who spends his days working as a toilet cleaner near the shack where he lives. He saves the extra income for his two grandchildren, hoping to split it between them when they grow up. Hindus consider rivers as holy and pilgrims toss offerings including coins, coconuts and flowers into the water for the "river goddess" who sustains lives by giving water for drinking and irrigation. They regard the Yamuna River, which originates in the Himalayas, as one of the most sacred in India, cremating the dead on its banks and throwing their most precious possessions, including jewellery, into the waters along with their loved ones' ashes. Gupta and his fellow divers swim beneath the polluted waters, often risking their health in their search for riches. He is at the river in the morning and evening seven days a week, and goes to his regular work during the day — a routine that he has followed for 35 years. Arvind Kumar, 29, has been working on the river full time for nearly 12 years. "There is no fixed income from this kind of work," said Kumar, who earns up to 600 Indian rupees per day on average, below the government's minimum daily wage of 710 Indian rupees for an unskilled worker. Mostly, the divers collect coins, bottles and plastics. Occasionally they might discover some slivers of gold. More rarely, gold rings and necklaces. Sometimes, they also find bodies, and then the police might call on them to help retrieve them. If they see people carried away by the currents, they might try to rescue them. This makes the divers "happier than the person rescued," Gupta said. A devout Hindu, Gupta said he was not afraid of the river because he had the protection of "Mata Rani", the Hindu mother goddess. "So why be scared?" he asked. "If she wants, I will die, if she wants me to live, she'll save me." [[nid:717024]]

Straits Times
6 days ago
- Straits Times
Four killed in small plane crash at London Southend Airport
Find out what's new on ST website and app. LONDON - Four foreign nationals were killed when a small plane crashed at London Southend Airport on Sunday shortly after takeoff, British police said on Monday. The U.S.-built Beechcraft B200 Super King Air plane had been bound for the Netherlands, when it "got into difficulty and crashed within the airport boundary," Essex Police Detective Chief Superintendent Morgan Cronin told reporters. Southend Airport, which is located about 35 miles east of the capital and used by easyJet to fly to European holiday destinations, will remain closed until further notice, the airport's CEO Jude Winstanley said. Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch, which investigates civil aircraft accidents, said it was "too early" to determine what caused the crash. It has deployed eight inspectors to the site. REUTERS