Asian perspectives : how Soviet scholars evaluate Asian relations meet 40 years after

Forty years after the Asian Relations Conference, as its commemorative session on October 2, 1987 was so very appropriately underlined by Vice-President Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma in so meaningful words, "our convergence proffers here to us another moment to survey and reflect upon the myriad aspects and elements of our evolution, and to look, together, ahead into the future, so that we, Asians, now blessed with freedom, can think and dream together and venture to advance our cherished endeavours for cooperation, peace and prosperity."

Indeed, these ringing words not only express the inherent ideas which in 1947 brought the Asian countries and Soviet Asian republics together but also stress what is most important today: cooperation, peace and prosperity. Mahatma Gandhi in his address to the Asian Relations Conference had emphasised that the message of Asia "must be a message of love" and it "must be a message of truth." At the commemorative session it was amply demonstrated that only through love exemplified by peaceful coexistence and realisation of the truth of nuclear holocaust can the world survive. This was also the focal point of the Delhi Declaration signed by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi which represents a modus vivendi for humanity through a synthesis of the ideas of Lenin and Gandhiji.

The Soviet Union has all along been the most trusted friend of India. Lenin, the trailblazer of human emancipation, had emphasised the need for conjoint action, especially between the people of Russia and the people of Asia, not only for overthrowing imperialist rule but also for peace and progress. The Soviet participants at the 1947 conference contributed to these very ideas and helped the process of Indo-Soviet friendship to thrive.