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| Sunday, 28 August 2005 |
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Promoting
mutual understanding
Remarks by Mrs. Nirupama Rao, the High Commissioner of India at the launch of BCIS Journal "International Relations in a Globalising World" at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, Colombo, August 12, 2005. I am delighted and honoured to receive the first copy of the BCIS Journal "International Relations in a Globalising World". Allow me to convey to you the warm greetings and good wishes of Shri I.K. Gujral who had very much hoped to accept your kind invitation to be present at today's function but could not do so due to unavoidable circumstances. Indeed, we are all united in expressing our felicitations to the Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar whose vision, resolve and drive has propelled the establishing of this Journal. I congratulate Dr. Tennakoon and his colleagues for this achievement. I am confident that the journal will promote mutual understanding between the nations of the world and provide a fresh impetus to North-South dialogue. I am also happy and privileged to be associated with the official launch of the BCIS website, which should enable scholars and students from around the island and the region to access its many publications and keep abreast of its programmes. I am therefore truly delighted to be a part of this august gathering here today. The launch of the Journal of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies is significant in itself. It is a landmark event, as Dr. Tennakoon termed it. It signifies the traversing of a new frontier in the operations of the Centre, an achievement that will no doubt promote deeper awareness of the maturity and excellence of the quality of the research being carried out under the aegis of the Centre. I was struck in this context by the sensitivity of the vision outlined by the Statement of Aims of the BCIS when it speaks of removing the misunderstandings, misconceptions and mistrust in communications between the developing and developed world, and the mutual gains that will be ours if only we promote a constructive engagement of the many worlds that make up our planet. The principles of democratic dialogue and debate are enshrined in the civilisational heritage of both India and Sri Lanka. The sacrosanct nature invested in both the written word and the transmission of knowledge in what Amartya Sen calls our argumentative societies from time immemorial is a well-recognised fact. In many ways, the BCIS Journal is embedded in this tradition. What is even more relevant is that in this day and age, when the information society defines the ambience in which we live and breathe, there is need for us, citizens of the developing world, to pay special attention to the articulation of our views and opinions on international and regional issues that impact our present and our future, in a focused manner, conveying all the "high seriousness" that Matthew Arnold once extolled. In this quest for cogent and purposeful communication, I think we in India and Sri Lanka should be guided by what Isaiah Berlin once called "objective pluralism". As Berlin put it, "We reject monism (that is, that only one set of values is true, all others are false). We also reject relativism, (my values are mine, yours are yours, and if we clash, too bad, neither of us can claim to be right)." Our duty is to promote mutual learning between our world and the other worlds that we co-exist with, and to follow always, when we promote research and learning, a non-partisan approach, marked by independence, innovative thinking and intellectual integrity. In this, our techniques need not differ from those of practitioners of international politics in the other regions of the world who would also support a similar approach in their research and academic studies. But, we must, at the same time, promote what Mr. Tissa Jayatilleke just referred to as the "humanizing and refining of international relations." The content of our message is naturally qualified by the context that we are a part of. There is a revolution of rising expectations in our societies fuelled by open markets, the removal of trade barriers, the blurring of physical frontiers with larger numbers of people criss-crossing our boundaries for business and tourism and the explosive growth of information and communication technologies. As mature democracies, India and Sri Lanka are characterised by the openness of their societies and the freedom of opinion and movement that their citizens are constitutionally entitled to. Globalisation and its processes have brought progress and innovation to many sectors of our economies, but they have also unleashed discontents and disparities that affect millions in our societies who exist on the razor's edge between hope and despair. The impact of multilateral free trade on the traditional sectors of our economy, our cottage industries, the small enterprises, and on village livelihoods built on centuries of tradition and divisions of labour is felt in many dislocating ways. Our concerns about terrorism and our trenchant belief that there are no ascending or descending categories of terrorism because all terrorism has to be eliminated, must be heard. Our commitment to the cause of peace and confidence-building, to promoting the peaceful rise of our countries must be understood. So too the fact that we are complex, multi-dimensional societies with a cultural and civilisational matrix that can be carbon-dated to several millennia. All this must be relayed, must be transmitted, and must be grasped by audiences outside our region. And, in the tradition of the democratic societies we represent, we must also be able to study and comprehend the trends and events that define global affairs and inter-regional politics in the current phase of human existence. And we must also be able to analyse and critically assess the attitudes and conclusions that the rest of the world draws about our region. Take the recent assessment of the American Tom Friedman whose latest book: "The World is Flat: a Brief History of the 21st Century" says that the playing field between our part of the world, for instance, cities like Bangalore and let us say a city like Los Angeles is being levelled, because of the I.T. boom in India. We all know that it will take much more for that playing field to be levelled - there are critical needs in education, health, employment creation, environmental preservation, women's empowerment, infrastructure creation that all need to be addressed if the world is indeed to be flattened. And, we must be able to articulate those concerns effectively, and thereby stimulate and enrich the global debate on such issues. The BCIS Journal therefore has a challenging mandate which I am sure it will fulfil in the best traditions of academic research and excellence that it has always exemplified. For us in India, especially, the launch of the journal is a matter of special satisfaction. India is Sri Lanka's closest and in fact the only neighbour. Our destinies are intertwined. Our relations - economic, political and cultural - are on an upward spiral. Policy makers and opinion leaders in both countries must have a sophisticated understanding of contemporary reality on either side of the Palk Straits. Geographical distance, or in this case the lack of that, can often be a trap. You could be very close and yet miss out. We are conscious of this and are working with our Sri Lankan friends to promote both exchanges at the academic and expert level as well as public knowledge of our societies, our political systems and challenges, our economic challenges and shortfalls and the way in which our peoples are striving for excellence in different fields. During the visit of President Chandrika Kumaratunga to India in November 2004, the Sri Lankan side proposed that a lecture titled "Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Oration" be jointly organised by the BCIS and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. It was also suggested that a Centre for India-Sri Lanka Studies be set up in BCIS. We have welcomed these proposals. We also welcome the intent of BCIS to add courses in Hindi to the considerable array of language classes it holds. The proposed oration should help sustain and strengthen the existing dialogue at the higher political levels. It could also help raise public awareness of exciting trends in India, say in the economic and technological fields, and what they mean for bilateral relations. The proposed Centre could further expect understanding of these trends and provide a space for academics of the two countries to reflect together on how best to advance our shared interests, which are considerable and growing. I hope these proposals will come to fruition soon. We are working to realise them. The growing band width of our engagement in numerous spheres augurs well for the fulfilment of the goals we have set in the field of academic interaction and co-operation. I have no doubt that the subject of relations between India and Sri Lanka will form an important part of the BCIS Journal's scope of work and focus. There is perhaps something symbiotic about that focus. Talking of our shared historical past, Ananda Coomaraswamy once remarked: "India without Ceylon is incomplete for, in many ways, Ceylon is a more perfect window through which to gaze on India's past than any that can be found in India herself". So too in the present, there is something divinely ordained in the manner in which we are drawn to each other, and in our instinctive understanding of each other. It is a perfect bio-sphere in which academic research should flourish and grow in strength and quality of output. May I conclude by applauding all those who have worked to bring this quality publication out and add to the many accomplishments of the BCIS. I am sure that the Centre would garner more glory under the wise and able guidance of its Chairman, the Honourable Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, and would emerge as an intellectual hub in South Asia. |
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