IU India Studies Program

An Indian Foreign Policy Conference
October 6, 2008

Good morning, distinguished guests, faculty, students, and friends. It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the IU Bloomington campus and to this exciting conference on Indian Foreign Policy organized by my good colleague Sumit Ganguly, the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations. IU is very proud to have Dr. Ganguly, who is considered one of the world's leading experts on Indian politics, as a member of its faculty and as director of the India Studies Program.

I would like to add my special welcome to former Ambassador of India, Rajendra Abhyankar. Ambassador Abhyankar has more than three decades of diplomatic experience dealing with a wide variety of political and economic issues. He has held many diplomatic posts, including Ambassador to the European Union and to the Republics of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Syria, as well as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, where he supervised India's relations with the countries of the Middle East and the Islamic world. Ambassador Abhyankar has been instrumental in formulating policy and programs in the areas of politics and security, trade and investment, and culture and education, with a special focus on developing Indian economic and commercial relations with the countries and regions for which he has been responsible. He also served as Consul General in San Francisco from 1998 to 2001.

We are honored to have Ambassador Abhyankar as our guest, and I welcome him warmly to Indiana University.

Since its beginnings more than a decade ago, the India Studies Program at Indiana University has become one of our most vital international programs. The program has been praised by many, including Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, who called IU's India Studies Program "an important center of excellence on a subject that has been neglected in American academia," and former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who called the program a "jewel in the crown of Indiana University" that "is contributing to Indian studies in the U.S. and worldwide."

The conference that starts today is a perfect example of the kinds of contributions the India Studies Program is making to our understanding of the modern Indian subcontinent and the critical political issues it faces in the 21st century. In the middle of the last century, India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the principal architect of the country's foreign policy, delivered a speech in the United States at Columbia University. In that speech, he said: "I should like to make it clear that the policy India has sought to pursue is not a negative and neutral policy. It is a positive and vital policy that flows from our struggle for freedom and from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Peace is not only an absolute necessity for us in India in order to progress and develop but also of paramount importance to the world. How can that peace be preserved? Not by surrendering to aggression, not by compromising with evil or injustice, but also not by the talking and preparing for war. Aggression has to be met, for it endangers peace. At the same time, the lesson of the past two wars has to be remembered. .... The very processes of marshaling the world into two hostile camps precipitates the conflict that it had sought to avoid. It produces a sense of terrible fear, and that fear darkens men's minds and leads them to wrong courses. There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear. As a great President of the United States said, 'there is nothing really to fear except fear itself.'

As India's democracy evolves and its military and economic power develops, India's interactions and exchange with other countries and regions such as Iran, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, and the United States are of crucial importance and significant interest to the world. The specialists and experts gathered here from leading national and international programs will surely help us better understand the nature of the issues, debates, and opportunities surrounding Indian foreign relations. I understand that the papers presented throughout this conference will be collected into a book, and I certainly look forward to reading that publication. The intellectual collaboration behind efforts such as this conference and the book that will result is a hallmark of the research landscape at Indiana University, which I and my office oversee.

As Vice Provost for Research, my mission is to support our faculty in their ongoing research and creative activities and to help them launch new initiatives. As part of this mission, OVPR actively encourages international partnerships. Recently, the university has been exploring opportunities for collaborations between IU and institutions of higher education in India. For example, in March, I traveled to India to meet with leaders at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, advancing possibilities for greater collaboration and exchange of our research faculty in the arts, the humanities, information technology, and the sciences. These kinds of international collaborations offer great opportunities for interdisciplinary research as well as individual interactions that enhance our understanding of present-day India.

When IU President Michael McRobbie delivered his inaugural speech last fall, he highlighted the "international imperative" for Indiana University, citing the extraordinary collaborative opportunities that exist for IU faculty and students. This conference in which you are participating today and tomorrow is one such extraordinary opportunity, and I thank you all for being here. I also want to take a moment to recognize and thank the sponsors for this conference. They are: The Asia Foundation The Embassy of India IU's Office of the Vice Provost for Research IU's Office of the Vice President for International Affairs The Center on American and Global Security Dr. Sisir and Heather Dhar, and Dr. Sanjay and Priyanka Pathak

Thank you again for inviting me here today.