Speech by South Asia Foundation Founder

At the outset may I say that as with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was instrumental in setting the tone of my lifelong dedication to arts and culture, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has encouraged me to promote regional cooperation in South Asia. In his introduction to my book, The Sasia Story, he wrote: ‘Since I had the pleasure of inaugurating the Sumitra Foundation, established by Madanjeet Singh in January 1995, I have retained an interest in the work of the two organizations established by Madanjeet – the Sumitra Foundation and the South Asia Foundation. I have watched as the South Asia Foundation has worked to enlarge the scope and dimension of its activities in search of common cultural, educational and economic denominators to strengthen cooperative initiatives throughout the South Asian region.’

I was inspired by Dr. Manmohan Singh’s several letters in support of establishing cultural and educational institutions of excellence to promote interaction among the peoples of South Asia. In a letter dated December 11, 2006, he complimented SAF for offering group scholarships to young people from SAARC countries and promised to ‘streamline visas to students.’ I would be grateful if the governments of India and Pakistan acted speedily to resolve some irksome visa issues, by removing the bureaucratic and political obstacles, so that students can go and study in SAF institutions of excellence in the other country for the duration of their courses and benefit from the experience. I am happy to announce that this year, students from Pakistan will be able to attend our institutions in India and we thank all the people who worked tirelessly for this.

The scope and dimension of the SAF Madanjeet Singh Group Scholarship programme, which is based on gender equality, has considerably expanded since SAF decided to fund the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Institute for Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage in Kabul, which was inaugurated in 2006. Since then, SAF has pledged a million dollars each to the eleven more institutions set up in all the eight SAARC countries.

Dr. Manmohan Singh would be pleased to know from our distinguished SAF chairpersons about the impressive strides taken by the institutions in Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as well as by the Indian institutions in Pondicherry, Chennai, and particularly at the University of Kashmir in Srinagar. This is fully in conformity with the message the Prime Minister so kindly sent on its inauguration: ‘The initiative to resuscitate the age-old traditions of Kashmir and to establish an institution which would serve as a melting pot of ideas and learning, involving young people and others, not only from the state and other parts of the country, but also from the neighbouring countries of the Indian sub-continent, is timely. I hope the institute contributes to strengthening the composite Sufi, Bhakti, Rishi culture of Kashmir.’

SAF is also greatly indebted to former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, whose invaluable contribution to India’s neighbourhood policy and regional relations is the ‘Gujral doctrine’ for harmonious relations among South Asian countries.

Before handing over the SAF-India chairmanship to Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was Union Minister of Panchayats and Sports at the time, Gujral ji strongly counselled that SAF chapters must be autonomous and guided by their respective chairpersons. SAF, may I say, has been extremely fortunate in the stature and quality of its leadership across our South Asian region. Among the first chairpersons of the SAF Governing Council, Dr. Kamal Hossain formulated the SAF constitution; he had assisted Banglabandhu Mujibur Rahaman in drafting the secular constitution of Bangladesh. Another SAF chairperson, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, sacrificed his life trying to resolve ethnic conflict between the Tamil and Sinhala communities. He was succeeded by no less than former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike-Kumaratunga. For Afghanistan, Dr Sayed Makhdom Raheen, Minister of Information and Culture, has been a pillar of support. For Pakistan, SAF has been fortunate to have as its chairperson Professor Salima Hashmi, daughter of the celebrated poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz; among other things, she has taken the lead in promoting secular and democratic ideals through art and culture and worked tirelessly for better Pakistan-India relations. For Bhutan, we have been privileged to have the former Prime Minister, Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup, who facilitated his country’s transition to elective democracy and worked actively to develop its free news media; for the Maldives, Ibrahim Hussain Zaki, former Planning Minister and SAARC secretary general and an intrepid fighter for democratic rights; for Nepal, Ambassador Bhek Bahadur and subsequently his wife, Dr Rita Thapa, who has handed over the SAF-Nepal chair to Nishchal Pandey, a dynamic office-bearer who joined SAF at its inception. I would also like to mention the fine contributions of Veena Sikri, Sayeeda Hamid, Navin Chawla, M.K. Raina and our Trustees, N. Ram and France Marquet.

Thank you all very much for finding the time to attend the inauguration of the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Institute for South Asia Regional Cooperation.

                                                                                
Madanjeet Singh

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