SCO Summit : Ancient Bonds For Modern Diplomacy

Soft power forms a crucial stream in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seven-streamed — Saptadhara — roadmap for civilisational India’s rise. His just-concluded Central Asia visit to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and his address at the SCO Summit in Bishkek have reaffirmed the centrality of that stream. From steadily recovering India’s stolen artefacts, to recovering her Buddhist heritage and legacy, to reinstating legacies such as the Cholas and Somnath, from Prambanan’s Trimurti Temples to Gandan’s sacred Buddhist monastery, from Buddha Relics yatras to Samvad, PM Modi has consistently made creative efforts to reconnect India’s civilisational footprints across the world with civilisations and people who have enriched those linkages and made them enduring ones. 

 The India-Central Asia civilisational connection and linkage has been intense and rich. Saivism, Buddhism, Buddhist Viharas and Hindu temples dotted this vast landscape in the past. Art historian and scholar of Buddhism P Banerjee, in his “Hindu Deities in Central Asia”, speaks of the “Narayana cult” in Central Asia. He refers to the Russian archaeologist and orientalist A.N. Bernstam, who discovered a fragment of an inscription in Kharosthi, which, when translated, read, “Narayana, be victorious.” Viharas and temples, Indian medicine and Ayurveda were among the principal exports, so to say, to Central Asia. 

As PM Modi inked the collaboration agreement in Traditional Medicine — Ayurveda and Uzbek medicinal herbs — one was reminded of the words of the legendary French writer, linguist and historian Jean Filliozat. In an essay on the “Expansion of Indian Medicine Abroad”, Filliozat argued that in civilisational India’s exchanges and interactions with Central Asia, China, Indo-China, Indonesia and beyond the seas, “Indian Ayurvedic medicine has been one of the main matters of export, along with astronomy, religions and arts.” A prolific scholar and admirer of civilisational India, Filliozat wrote of the sands of Central Asia yielding “not only Buddhistic texts and documents of archives in Sanskrit, or Prakrit, but also medicinal manuscripts in Sanskrit, or translated from Sanskrit” into the languages of the region. 

India’s commitment to preserving Uzbekistan’s Buddhist heritage is another major step in renewing the civilisational link. Central Asia, in the past, formed an important incubation cradle for Buddhism. Well-known Russian historian and Central Asia expert B.A. Litvinsky concluded that, with new discoveries made every year, it was established that “Buddhism was supreme” in “Central Asia for centuries together.” For India, under Modi, Uzbekistan’s Buddhist heritage was a joint civilisational heritage. While PM Modi firmed up pacts and collaborative ventures in Artificial Intelligence, critical minerals, clean energy and nuclear energy, the underlying texture of the visit was the renewal of civilisational bonds. Also Read - Building Pathways to Dignity It was seen in the Kyrgyz mega-epic Manas’s connection with the Mahabharata. Its essence had been absorbed when Kyrgyz scholars spoke of the common civilisational values that the two mega-epics shared. A civilisational dialogue can also be reflected through a Dialogue of Epics. Major epics of enduring civilisations speak. They radiate core cultural, societal and spiritual values, and a dialogue best serves to re-establish civilisational commonalities. It shone through when PM Modi discussed the essence and civilisational wisdom of Thirukkural in Tashkent and spoke of its spirituality, philosophy and practical wisdom, and of how it offers insights into one of the oldest languages of humanity. His suggestion that Thirukkural could be translated into the Uzbek language stemmed from India’s essential belief that her civilisational wisdom was meant for the well-being of the world. PM Modi’s suggestion reminded me of the words of a formidable scholar of civilisational India, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, who spoke of how ancient India, having “obtained for herself the means for the realisation of truth, and having obtained it”, moved in a “spirit of joyful participation” into “countries known and unknown and gave of her treasure to the nations.” PM Modi’s participation in the 6th edition of the World Nomad Games, with India sending its biggest contingent of 87 members, underlined India’s commitment to these uniquely creative civilisational initiatives. The Bishkek SCO Declaration carried a number of India-led initiatives and suggestions — the Civilisational Dialogue Forum, Young Scientist Forum and the Young Authors’ Conclave. Each one is a defining and future-oriented suggestion that can shape and crystallise ideas and initiatives, especially among the young intelligentsia in this region. PM Modi’s underscoring that “India would be delighted to host the first edition of the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum, later this year” is certainly one of the high points of the visit. With her past civilisational linkages in the SCO region and her philosophy of “Dharma-Vijaya”, the inaugural edition of the Dialogue in India will be a significant first step in institutionalising this first-of-its-kind Dialogue. This edition of PM Modi’s Central Asia visit and SCO engagement, thus, has been a refreshing one, auguring possibilities that are inspired and driven by the seventh stream of his “Saptadhara” vision.