Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A6

July 6, 2011

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Opinion » Foreign Views

Reviving ancient ties between neighbors

By Yukteshwar Kumar | July 6, 2011, Wednesday | Print Edition

BIHAR might not have played a very significant role in the modern saga of Sino-Indian relations, but it certainly was the main conduit between Sino-Indian ties during ancient times.

To resuscitate the glorious relations and traditions of the ancient times and to promote trade and attract investment and tourists to the Buddhist circuit of Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was recently in China for a week-long (June 12-18) study trip. Kumar is viewed as one of the most successful chief ministers of India.

More than 85 percent of Biharis live in villages and Kumar's main goal in visiting China was to attract investment, support and co-operation with in agro-industries.

To this end, the chief minister not only visited the mega cities of China - Beijing and Shanghai - but also went to a distant village in the eastern province of Shandong. Kumar knows that he and his province need to learn a lot from China in the fields of agriculture, infrastructure and industry.

Bihar is primarily an agricultural state and it especially lacks energy resources.

Except for the capital of Patna, energy is insufficient. Other cities, towns and villages do not get 10-12 hours of electricity a day.

To learn lessons from China, the chief minister visited Linuo Ritter International Co Ltd, which manufactures cutting-edge solar thermal panels in Jinan, capital city of Shandong, and inquired about solar technology for power generation and water heating for industrial and domestic use.

Tapping solar energy would be a very good way to resolve Bihar's power and electricity problems. The state gets more than 320 days of very bright sunlight in a year and comprehensive use of solar panels would be a very positive step in the right direction.

Further, Chinese tractors are comparatively much cheaper than those produced in India and Bihar needs many tractors to meet the demands of poor farmers.

In Shandong, Kumar visited several factories and personally inspected several assembly lines of manufacturers of tractors and other agricultural equipment for harvesting, sowing and other uses.

The geographical position of Shandong in China is almost the same as the geographical position of Bihar in India - both are in the east and both are primarily agricultural states, now evolving into agro-industry.

Great sages

As Shandong was the home of the greatest Chinese astute sage - Confucius - similarly Bihar was the home of India's greatest sage - Gautam Buddha.

Gaya, the place where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment, already has an international airport, with some flights from Thailand and Singapore.

However, Gaya has no direct flights to any Chinese cities. Establishing direct flight links between Gaya and any southern Chinese cities would be a great relief to Chinese pilgrims, and it would boost the tourism industry of India and Bihar.

Chief Minister Kumar has suggested to the central government of India that the name of Gaya International airport be changed to Buddha International Airport.

Bihar has seen a 10-fold increase in the inflow of tourists, from 50,000 in 2000 to more than 500,000 in 2010. This is mainly due to Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the province.

Throughout the first millennium, Bihar was also the most important place of religion, culture, education and politics in what is now India.Scholars treat the Maurya and Gupta dynasties in Bihar as being as pivotal, golden and glorious as the Han (206 BC-220 AD) and Tang (619-906 AD) dynasties of China.

The world's first university in the true sense, with residential dormitories for international students and scholars, was established at Nalanda and Vikramshila in Bihar, and the three main Chinese Buddhist pilgrim-scholars - Faxian, Xuanzang and Yijing - visited these places. Xuanzang even studied and taught at Nalanda University in the seventh century and on February 12, 2007, Xuanzang Memorial Hall was inaugurated.

Buddhism certainly has the power to resuscitate the ancient and wonderful relations between the two countries.

(The author is course director of Chinese at the University of Bath, United Kingdom. Shanghai Daily condensed his article.)

Foreign Views


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend