|
| 'Cultural diplomacy can't be quantified' | | Q&A: Karan Singh, PRESIDENT, Indian Council for Cultural Relations |
| Business Standard / New Delhi Dec 17, 2008, 00:48 IST |
|
 The Indian Council for Cultural Relations was founded in April 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the country’s first education minister, to promote cultural and intellectual exchange with other countries. It is often considered the cultural diplomacy arm of the Indian government. ICCR President Karan Singh spoke to Business Standard on its relevance, challenges and plans. Edited excerpts:
What role do you see for cultural diplomacy in this age of conflict and mistrust?
There is great scope for it all over the world, more so in our immediate neighbourhood. We share so much in common. We share Urdu with Pakistan, Nepali with Nepal, Bangla with Bangladesh and Tamil with Sri Lanka. We share Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam with these countries. We have just opened cultural centres in Kabul and Kathmandu. In South Asia, we earlier had only one centre (Sri Lanka). We hope to open one in Dhaka and hopefully one in Islamabad too.
Has an audit ever been done to assess the tangible gains that arise out of such cultural diplomacy?
Culture deals with intangibles. How do you quantify it? You can quantify the scholarships we give to foreign students, the troupes that go abroad. But their impact can’t be quantified. There is a growing interest in our culture as India emerges in the great global game. People are more interested in India than before.
Does the focus keep changing for cultural diplomacy – one country today, another country tomorrow?
We are concentrating a little more on the Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operations, a club of eight South Asian countries) region which was neglected. We have three centres in the whole of Europe—Moscow, Berlin and London. We need a few more. We are trying to expand our global reach.
Is what you are doing in Afghanistan the softer aspect of India’s Great Game?
We definitely have very strong interests in a stable Afghanistan. We are rebuilding roads, schools and bridges. Culture is an aspect of that.
How big is your exposure to Afghanistan?
I haven’t been there. But we have given 500 scholarships. For that, we got 10,000 applications. (Apart from Afghanistan, ICCR has handed out 1,800 scholarships to other emerging countries this year.)
Do the students who get your scholarships become India’s brand ambassadors in their countries?
We hope so. Some of them hold high office in countries like Trinidad and Mauritius. We are trying to build a database of the scholarships that we have given in the last 40 years so that we can follow those students and establish contact.
There is growing evidence that in Africa, India has been left behind by China in all channels of diplomacy, though our cultural link with that continent is stronger and older.
China has made a special thrust in Africa. We are gradually catching up. We had a big cultural festival from Africa the other day, and hundreds of artistes from there had come. But we have to do more. We have two centres there, one in South Africa and one up north in Cairo. We need some in other parts of Africa too. We are also looking east. We are building a new centre in Japan. In China we are not allowed a centre, though our embassy has a cultural centre. After Jakarta and Bali, we are planning to open one in Bangkok. The problem is our finances are very limited – Rs 75 crore is nothing and we have a very heavy agenda.
How will you manage this heavy agenda?
We do ride piggyback some times on other organisations. In fact, they ride piggyback on us. If somebody has a music festival, he might want our logo and patronage. We get some mileage out of it. Yoga and Bharat Natyam are very popular at our centres. If you have teachers for the two, you have the beginnings of a centre. People come there, the teachers travel around on weekends.
Is there a commercial opportunity waiting to be exploited?
Unfortunately, we are not allowed to charge tickets. Partnership with some business houses is under consideration. We can’t get directly involved. They could be sponsors.
Is India in some kind of a race with China over Buddhist culture?
China doesn’t really claim Buddhism. It isn’t supposed to have an official religion. They are going back to Confucius and will open about 100 centres globally. Of course, Buddhism is very powerful there. Maybe they are also using it for cultural diplomacy. But India is the home for Buddhism. We don’t have anything to fear.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
