Sri Lanka, Oct. 11 -- This is the second part of the interview with Dr. Gamini Wijesuriya, an international activist on heritage.

Q: In the discussion last week you said that 'Heritage' is a relatively new term coined with Europe's new conservation discourse. You said that Sri Lanka needs to break away from heritage related concepts drafted during colonial rule in the 1940s. You said that what we have are antiquities (puravasthu) predated 1815 or those that are older than 100 years. You spoke on the importance of looking at the intangible aspects of these. Could you elaborate further?

A: We have started following the western notion of heritage which was based on the divide and rule policy they followed in general. The Western mind funct...