How Modi can usher Buddha era back to India
The Global Hindu-Buddhist Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 3 in Delhi followed from his discussions with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his visit a year ago. A finely worded special message from Abe was relayed during the inauguration ceremony.
The event saw the presence of a mixture of political leaders, Buddhist monks and scholars from Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia, Bhutan, Nepal, Russia, Vietnam and Taiwan, with a similar grouping from India, both Hindu and Buddhist. The Chinese, though invited, were absent. The Dalai Lama, the greatest living embodiment of Buddha's teachings was, unfortunately, kept away from the proceedings.
Conclave
The conclave's theme has relevance to contemporary developments and concerns. West Asia is in turmoil, with new extremist forces on an uncontrolled rampage. Not only are non-Muslim victims of the fanatic Sunni followers of the Islamic State (IS), the Shias too are targets, and this has sharpened the sectarian conflict within Islam. The IS has begun to destroy ancient pre-Islamic UNESCO protected monuments to the horror of the international community.
Instead of efforts at conflict avoidance, various countries in a position to push for peace have been actually fuelling conflict for reasons rooted in geopolitics, national gains and regional ambitions. US and Europe have pursued regime change policies with disastrous consequences. Turkey has intervened in Syria with President Assad's ouster and suppression of Kurdish aspirations in view. Key Gulf states have traditionally financed puritanical and intolerant versions of Islam and have backed the most radical Sunni elements to counter the rise of Iran-led Shia power in the region, and these have now morphed into the IS.
India has seen the precursor of such destructive forces as the IS that reject modernity, democracy, and basic human rights appearing in our region in the guise of the Taliban with the support of Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment. Protected by the former, the al-Qaida found refuge in our neighbourhood. The sheltering of Osama bin Laden for years in a Pakistani garrison town exposed Pakistani complicity in nurturing radicalism in the region for strategic ends.
The AfPak area has been the epicentre of terrorism, and India has borne the brunt of terrorist violence for years. With the rise of the IS and its seemingly highly effective social media campaign to attract more recruits, the danger of such highly retrograde ideologies spilling over into India cannot be ignored.
At the meeting of the conclave organised specially at Bodh Gaya on September 5, Modi pointedly remarked that while there is no problem in practicing one's religion, conflict arises when radical religious elements try to impose their ideology over others.
Environment
Environment consciousness has become an issue of international concern in the context of protecting our planet's ecology and climate change concerns. Access to clean energy, reducing energy intensity and carbon emissions are challenges that require not only governmental action but also raised social consciousness and reliance on religious-cultural traditions that are sensitive to the environment.
The theme of conflict avoidance and environment consciousness can thus be best advanced by a combination of political and spiritual endeavour - the latter by highlighting the scriptural backing for individual action and responsibility. This would explain why this conclave, in addition to Hindu and Buddhist religious dignitaries, gathered political personalities such as the former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the Japanese minister of state of foreign affairs, the finance minister of Bhutan, the culture minister of Nepal and so on.
Misgivings in some quarters about such mixing of religion with politics would be misplaced. Such mixing exists everywhere, even in advanced Western democracies where some major political parties have a religious denomination.
In 2014, the British Prime Minster James Cameron spoke of his country as Christian country. It is when the IS started decimating the Christians of the region that indignation levels against its depredations escalated in the West. Faced with the current refugee crisis, some east European countries are willing to accept only Christian refugees!
Modi's initiative along with Abe is not intended to create a Hindu-Buddhist bloc like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) whose purpose is to generate pressure on others on narrowly-defined Islamic issues. It is intended to project a common ground between Hinduism and Buddhism, unexplored until now, with a view to using it to encourage a mindset that is against conflict and respectful of the environment, without wanting to emulate any Western methodology of "conflict resolution" or participating in negotiations on environmental and climate change issues on this new platform.
Buddha
Even though Buddha was a product of our civilisation, we have ignored our own Buddhist heritage in our relations with Southeast and east Asian countries. The entire region to the east of us is deeply linked to us religiously and culturally.
The way in which this region has amalgamated Hindu and Buddhist traditions is truly extraordinary. The huge "sagar manthan" sculpture at the Bangkok Airport or the Erawan shrine devoted to Brahma in Bangkok, which witnessed a terrorist attack recently, testify to this. Yet we have failed to leverage these rich and living connections to strengthen our people to people, cultural, academic and religious ties with these countries on appropriate platforms. Our "Act East" policy, with its political, economic and security content, needs this as an important supplement.
That we have woken up to this under Modi should be commended.