Dr. Kamardeen, an attorney-at-law and academic specialising in international law and cultural property, is researching this complex and emotionally charged issue. Her work challenges longstanding legal and moral norms, questioning the legitimacy of colonial-era acquisitions and advocating for a postcolonial critique of international law.
She emphasised the unique role colonialism played in reshaping global ownership laws. The legal regime that allowed for the acquisition and export of cultural property—such as Sri Lanka’s Statue of Tara, now housed in the British Museum—was built upon frameworks designed by colonial powers.
These legal structures, she notes, often conveniently justified the appropriation of cultural artefacts, cloaking such actions in the guise of legality.
She mentioned the Statue of Tara as a case study. This 10th-century bronze sculpture of the Buddhist deity, stands as a poignant reminder of the plunder of Sri Lanka’s cultural heritage. Governor Robert Brownrigg removed the statue from Ceylon in the early 19th century, and it now resides in the British Museum.
At the time, the acquisition was legally justified under British colonial law. But as Dr. Kamardeen points out, the postcolonial critique attacks not only the legality but also the morality of such actions.
“Even by the standards of the time, colonial violence and the dehumanisation of native populations were inherently unethical,” she argues.
The removal of cultural property was not merely an act of governance but an assertion of power—an attempt to objectify and subjugate colonised peoples by stripping them of their cultural identity.
Dr. Kamardeen’s research is part of a broader academic and legal effort to challenge the entrenched norms of cultural property law. Her project, “Whose Law?” in collaboration with international institutions, seeks to amplify voices from the Global South and reevaluate the historical injustices of colonialism.
