INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | CIVILISATION
keen on some Indian students coming to China for studies, develop, and establish contacts with the Chinese people and their national movement. It was also agreed that India would continue to press the British to withdraw Indian forces from China and not to use them against the Chinese people. Taking these agreements as foundations, the Indian and Chinese delegates issued a joint manifesto and emphasized the resolve of India and China in their anti-imperialist struggle. It is unfortunate that the flow of information between the two nations even today is not to the expected levels, we may know a lot about our western counterparts but very little about ours neighbours including China. During the War of Resistance and the Second World War, so long as China suffered at the hands of the Japanese, the reverberations were felt in India too. India dispatched a medical mission to China in 1938 to help them in their War of Resistance. Dr Kotnis, one of the doctors of this mission died in China while serving the wounded soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and other Chinese people. Nehru made the bonds of friendship even stronger when he visited China in 1939. The fruits of the 1927 interaction were further consolidated. President Chiang Kai-Shek visited India in 1940 specially to break the deadlock between the British and the Congress, and met Gandhi. This was also the period when China studies gathered momentum at Tagore’s Shantiniketan under the stewardship of Prof Tan Yunshan. China and Sino-Indian studies in India took a shape and flight only after Tan joined forces with Tagore and especially after the establishment of Cheena Bhavan (1937), Tan left no stone unturned, collected huge amount of funds and bibliographical sources in China and Southeast Asian countries through his personal connections. In order to strengthen the India-China studies, he also invited many Chinese scholars and teachers to Shantiniketan, who dedicated themselves to teaching and research on Sino-Indian cultural studies, and also published a periodical, Sino-Indian Studies to disseminate the research work of the scholars. Tan acted as a bridge between the Chinese |48| India-China Chronicle July 2012
HEALTH | INDIA-CHINA | INFOCUS
and Indian scholarship as he wrote prolifically not only in Indian newspapers, journals and media but also in leading research journals of China that time including the Eastern Miscellany (Dongfang Zazhi), thus introducing the Indian freedom movement and its leadership to the Chinese people, and at the same time sensitizing the Indian mind about the situation in China, particularly the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-45) and influencing Indian thinking of many leading personalities about China. In retrospect, the civilizational cross cultural currents between India and China went unhindered for two mil-
various historic personages including kumarajiva, Xuanzang, tagore, tan yunshan, ji Xianlin and many others that facilitated such a dialogue between india and china, had tremendous faith in the indian and chinese civilizations and had visualized the vitality of the oriental culture lennia. Especially the colonial period was the period when both the people of India and China rendered support and sympathy to each other in their common struggle. It was Nehru’s vision that in future India and China would necessarily come nearer to each other for the vast and tremendous potentials of economic cooperation in a New World after the War. India was the first country in non-communist block to recognize China and establish diplomatic relations. It is unfortunate that both India and China did not handle their relations well in the 1950s due to various misconceptions and misunderstandings. We cannot blame geopolitics and the Cold War, which itself was the product of the former. Miscon-
ceptions have bred mistrust, rivalry; destabilized the nations, and pushed them into deeper economic crisis. The military retaliations by the US and the subsequent war on terror, far from solving the problem has aggravated it, and sowed the seeds for even greater calamities. The US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan rendered a million people dead. Even though Osama bin Laden has been killed, the war on terrorism is far from over; Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia have been radicalized or Talibanized and the forces of Islamic fundamentalism strengthened in these countries. The only way out in conflict resolution perhaps is dialogue rather civilizational, not the military solution that originates from the dangerous thesis of the clash of civilizations. Therefore, rather than geo-politics, the need of the hour is geo-civilizational dialogue and discourse that would help us to understand the people of other nations in a better way and sensitize ourselves towards others’ sensitivities. This is the only way through which trust can be built. Various historic personages including Kumarajiva, Xuanzang, Tagore, Tan Yunshan, Ji Xianlin and many others that facilitated such a dialogue between India and China, had tremendous faith in the Indian and Chinese civilizations and had visualized the vitality of the Oriental culture. Prof Ji Xianlin, doyen of Indian studies in China, has even prophesied that the twenty-first century would be the century of the Oriental culture. According to Ji Xianlin, it would become the world’s leading culture and would take human and cultural development to a higher level. Obviously, India and China has to work together to turn the vision of these personages into reality. Can they do it, and thus pave the way for a firmer hand shake across the Himalayas?
icec’s china india healThcare conference and china india Yoga summiT in guangzhou
L
Mind over matter
ast year, in June 2011, the China India Yoga Summit was held in Guangzhou with the lead taken by India’s Consul General’s Office and was directed by Mr Zhiyong Chen. ICEC Council’s representatives in Guangzhou and Shenzhen joined the event as observers. Significantly it was graced by the 93-year-old yoga guru Yogacharya BKS Aiyangar and a 117-year-old Shaolin master Lu Zijian. Both renowned masters practice their art for hours even at this age. After a lifetime exploring links between body, mind and spirit, they are sharp and agile enough to teach youngsters one-third their age lessons on how to stay not just fit but keep their equipoise. In June 2011, both came together at an ambitious China-India Yoga Summit held in Guangzhou. The agenda was a dialogue on the traditional fitness regimens of the two countries. Iyengar led a packed, three-
day programme of guiding thousands of yoga enthusiasts from China and abroad on the many inter-connecting layers of the system along with senior Iyengar teacher Birju Mehta. Before leaving for China, Yogacharya, who has always been generously allowing beginners and veterans to attend his classes, said, ‘‘I will go from the scratch to the ultimate.’’ Yoga reached China around 40 years ago and caught on like wild fire despite the fact that the country has its own indigenous systems of mind-body regimens. There are about 15 million
yoga practitioners in China today. Chen observed that “Tai Chi is now not as popular as yoga in China. Yoga is definitely more popular among the educated youth, especially women—95% of learners are women.” Ayush Department of the Ministry of Health of India supported the event. Master Lu Zijian, who is fondly referred to as the Yangtze River’s Great Chivalrous Man, lives in Chongqin and practices the evolved Tao-based martial art and healing system, bagua zhang. With help from interpreters, the two masters compared Tai Chi and yoga, its principles and similarities, how they look at the human body, mind and spirit, and how they work to improve them. ICEC Council will join the Consul General’s Office and Ayush for the China India Yoga Summit and further co-sponsor a similar event in Guangzhou and follow it up with the China India Healthcare Conference, CIHC 2012.
Dr BR Deepak is Associate Professor of Chinese at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi
July 2012 India-China Chronicle |49|