Opinion In-Chin closer

We had an enthralling jugalbandi in calligraphy between Achyut Palav,one of India’s finest calligraphers,and Li Xian Yang,the deputy consul general who is more an artist than a diplomat. The festival concluded,appropriately,with the guests relishing Chinese food,served by Nelson Wang,the most famous Chinese restaurateur in India.

The festival made a positive impact on all those who attended it. Nevertheless,sceptics who couldn’t come kept asking me: “Can we really trust the Chinese?” “True,bilateral trade has zoomed from $3 billion in 2000 to $ 60 billion in 2010. But can India and China ever be friends,considering that both are rising and competing powers in Asia?” “Don’t you remember that there was hardly any applause for the Indian sportspersons at the Asian Games in Guangzhou,although the Chinese applauded the Pakistani contingent?” “What about China’s outrageous demand that India and other countries boycott the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed Chinese human rights activist?”

Questions like these only go to show that those who have chosen to work for India-China amity don’t have an easy task on their hands. However,has any noble and necessary task in history ever been easy? Only cowards or those lacking conviction run away from such an endeavour,when faced with difficulties and criticism. For me,promotion of friendly ties between India and China is a mission. I believe that the effort to build peaceful,harmonious and cooperative relations between our two great nations is not an option; it is a historical necessity and,more importantly,an opportunity to change mankind’s destiny. My inspiration in this effort comes from one ancient Indian sage,Buddha,and two modern Indian sages: Mahatma Gandhi and Tagore. Gandhiji wrote in 1942: “As a friend of China,I long for the day when a free India and a free China will cooperate together in friendship and brotherhood for their own good and for the good of Asia and the world.” Gurudev’s words,spoken at the opening of ‘Cheena Bhavan’ in Shantiniketan in 1937,are my guide and command. “(There is) an ancient pledge implicit in our past…The pledge to maintain the intercourse of culture and friendship between our people and the people of China,an intercourse whose foundations were laid centuries ago by our ancestors with infinite patience and sacrifice.”

“Patience” and “sacrifice”. These are two indispensable mantras for anyone trying to do something worthwhile in life.

I also draw inspiration from those eminent Chinese who understood India’s true greatness. Amongst them was Prof. Tan Yun-shan,Tagore’s comrade-in-arms in founding ‘Cheena Bhavan’. He wrote: “Riding on the white horse I head / Towards the path trodden by old sages;/Something I hold close to my chest:/My great ambition yet to manifest./Gone are the Tripitakas into antiquity,/Supplementaries are needed for posterity./Who is ready to undertake the task/To make moderns better than men of the past?”

Another genuine friend of India is China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao,who is coming to New Delhi next week for his eleventh meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh since 2004. In the course of researching for the festival,I discovered an outstanding Chinese scholar,Ji Xianlin (1911-2009),whom Wen Jiabao respectfully describes as his “mentor” and who was regarded by the Chinese people as a “national treasure”.

India belatedly honoured Ji Xianlin with the Padma Bhushan in 2008,but how many Indians know that here was a Sanskrit scholar who brilliantly translated many Indian scriptures into Mandarin with infinite patience and,well,sacrifice too? During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976),which was the modern China’s nightmare period,Ji Xianlin was brutally persecuted by the Communist Red Guards,who branded him as a ‘counter-revolutionary’. He was beaten up,thrown into a cowshed,and humiliatingly paraded around,all of which drove him to think about committing suicide. Yet,such was Ji Xianlin’s love for India that he used the decade of the mis-called ‘Cultural Revolution’ to translate,in secret,the Ramayana,one of the greatest symbols of Indian culture,as an everlasting gift to posterity.

Knowing Ji Xianlin’s influence on Wen Jiabao,I can now better understand why the Chinese Premier,one of the few philosopher-statesmen in the world today,has said: “Friendliness accounts for 99.99 per cent of the 2,200-year-old Sino-Indian exchanges and misunderstanding merely 0.01 per cent. It’s high time we buried that 0.01 per cent and re-established the 99.99 per cent.”

India and China are undoubtedly inching closer. However,we both must continue to make resolute efforts to bury the misunderstanding by peacefully resolving all the outstanding problems in our bilateral relations.

sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com