The Ministry of External Affairs is getting ready to promote the global discipline of Indology as a soft diplomatic platform.
The Ministry, under the umbrella of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, will organise the first World Indology Conference from November 21 to 23. “The spirit of universality found in the Upanishads are particularly relevant to the violent 21st century,” Karan Singh, former president of the ICCR, and one of the prominent speakers at the meet, said.
Global pool
Indology, which includes the study of the Vedas, Vedanta, Upanishads and the Sanskrit classics, has a global pool of scholars who can project India’s core civilisational values effectively on the global stage, said Karan Singh, former president of the ICCR and one of the prominent speakers at the event.
“Inclusiveness and universality that are found in the Vedanta and the Upanishads are the prime features of Indology. The spirit of universality found in the Upanishads are particularly relevant to the violent world affairs of the twenty-first century,” Dr. Singh said.
The participation of the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the conference is another new feature which has made the initiative a talking point in the Ministry. Speaking to The Hindu, ICCR Director-General C. Rajasekhar said the conference would be hosted at the Rashtrapati Bhavan “to send a message loud and clear by the President of India about the importance that the government attaches to Indology as it sheds light on Indian civilisational achievements.”
Mr. Rajasekhar said the three-day conference would be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee who is widely known for his interest in the Sanskrit classics. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, also known to be well-versed in Sanskrit, addressed the World Sanskrit Conference held in Bangkok on June 28 and has promoted the classical language at the official events of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Maintaining her focus on soft diplomacy with Indology, Ms. Swaraj attended a seminar on Indology in Moscow during her October 19-21 trip to Russia, which gave the last-moment boost to official works for the World Indology Conference. The conference, which will have participants from Brazil, China, Russia, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S., will also have scholars from 18 other countries.
