(TM Thomas Isaac is the former finance minister of Kerala. The column first appeared in the print edition of The Hindu on October 2, 2021)
- I was brought up in Kodungallur, which is believed to be in the vicinity of Muziris, the ancient port on the Malabar coast that dates back to at least the first century BC. Artefacts dating back to Roman times have been found there. The Jews, Arabs, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and English were all there. I thought, if these sites were conserved, a tour through them could become a circuit for informal history education. For me, education was the primary focus, because I wanted to give students a walk through history, to teach them about the past so that they can know better about the present. Though the project is under the tourism department, the tourism angle was actually a spin-off; we are focused on our children, on future generations. We are going to organise a three-day certificate course on Muziris for students.
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