I dream of a day, while retaining our respective identities, one can have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore, and dinner in Kabul. That is how my forefathers lived. That is how I want our grandchildren to live.
A lovely sentiment, wouldn't you agree?
That was India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, quoted in this talk by Hillary Clinton, when she was at Chennai a while ago. (Hey, I am a tad late to this party!)
Instead, what a colossal destruction of life and property because of the unwillingness to coexist over the years since 1947!
Hillary Clinton has been the best news in the Obama administration. After their intense primary battles, I wondered how much Clinton would be okay to being the second violinist. But, boy has she been impressive as a team player, and as a quiet and efficient cabinet official! Pretty much no gaffes as the Secretary of State. While we might not agree with her policy perspectives every single time, Clinton has represented the US absolutely as America's diplomat-in-chief. I might seriously vote for Obama if he ditches Biden and makes Clinton his running mate.
Anyway, back to the Indian context for this entry: the US-India Higher Education Summit here in DC.
This unprecedented event also highlights the importance of education between our two countries. Academic exchange programs provide deep roots for our countries' relationship. Our ties are anchored by the more than 12,000 alumni of U.S. Department of State's public diplomacy programs in India, the 104,897 Indian students studying in the United States in 2010, and the more than 2 million Indian-Americans living in the United States. And the Fulbright Program has laid the foundation for this relationship since its inception in 1950. Today's events are the next step in developing our relationship.
The State Department is actively promoting internships in India for American students:
With more than 100,000 Indian students studying in the United States each year, young people in India tend to know a fair amount about U.S. cities, culture and businesses. But fewer than 3,000 U.S. students study in India annually.
Isn't it a tragic irony that India and the US, two countries literally on the other side of the planet from each other, are able to interact to this level, while even the next door Pakistan and Afghanistan are alien worlds to Indians? What the fuck is wrong with this world :(
Almost two decades ago, in the dead of the night, the phone at home rang. Fearing for the worst news from India, I shakily answered it. It was my old school mate, Srikumar.
The guy had decided to take the land route from the Czech Republic to India, but could not proceed east from Iran because Pakistan would not issue him a visa. To make things worse, Srikumar was all out of money too. "Can you get me an air ticket from Tehran to anywhere in India?" was his question in the middle of the night.
I assured him I would. In the morning, I contacted my friend, Shahab, who was from Iran, who then gave me the phone number of his preferred travel agent. A day later, Srikumar was out of Iran, over the Pakistani air, and safe in India.
As Robert Kaplan wrote:
Aryans may have infiltrated from the Iranian plateau, and together with the subcontinent’s autochthonous inhabitants were part of a process that consolidated the political organization of the Gangetic Plain in northern India around 1000 B.C. This led to a set of monarchies between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C., culminating with the Nanda Empire which in the fourth century B.C. stretched across northern India and the Gangetic Plain from Punjab to Bengal. In 321 B.C., Chandragupta Maurya dethroned Dhana Nanda and founded the Mauryan Empire, which came to envelop much of the subcontinent except for the deep south, and thus for the first time in history encouraged the idea of India as a political entity conforming with the geography of South Asia.
A long and rich history in this geography. If only we could soon figure out how to maintain our respective identities and yet interact in friendly manner--friendly enough to travel the old trading routes and stop at the eateries in Amristar, Lahore, and Kabul.
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