 "UNESCO AND INDIA : FRUITFUL CO-OPERATION AND ABIDING FRIENDSHIP" BY PREM KRIPAL

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has completed fifty years of its life on 4 November 1995. I have been fortunate in witnessing its inception in debates and consultations among the Allied Powers' Ministers of Education in war-battered London of 1945-46, and its birth in Paris in 1946 in the midst of the bright hopes and surging idealism. Since then I have been associated with UNESCO in different capacities, as national delegate, international civil servant, educator, national commission functionary and as a member and then Chairman of the Executive Board. It has been a marvellous experience of striving and learning from the early formative years of the world organization responsible for the difficult, vast and intangible fields of international cooperation and from its growing problems and opportunities which continue to unfold themselves in a world still struggling to be one.

Considering the unique character and objectives of UNESCO, it is not surprising that of all the organs of the United Nations UNESCO should have had a special appeal for the mind of new India, nurtured on the ideals of Gandhi and Nehru and the great struggle led by them. Ideas and urges contributing to the objectives of democracy, equality, synthesis of cultures, supremacy of moral and spiritual values, the pursuit of scientific objectivity and reason, as well as the ancient values of love and compassion, which were cherished by the

*Reproduced with the author's permission from India Quarterly (New Delhi), vol.41, no.2, April-June 1985, pp.208-14.

leaders of modern India, were the same which lay at the heart of UNESCO's mission. Their faith in the diffusion and improvement of education, in the harnessing of science and technology for economic development, and the use of cultural activities and media of communication for increasing mutual understanding and trust among diverse people and cultures, is also the mandate of UNESCO. It is, therefore, not surprising that in the formative years of the world's cultural organization, India should have played an active and conspicuous role in its development and also derived inspiration and assistance from it.

In the things of the mind- and the spirit there is no limit to what people can share with each other. India has given as abundantly to UNESCO as it has received from it in the fields of education, science and culture, and both the giving and the receiving have strengthened international cooperation.

UNESCO and the United Nations are what the world community of nations make of them, and it is in the action and commitment of its constituent units that the ultimate strength of the organisation resides. India's record in the formative years of UNESCO's development is creditable. Many things were attempted and achieved, but I shall mention only a few important aspects merely to indicate the range and nature of India's cooperation with UNESCO.

INDIA AND UNESCO'S EVOLVING MISSION

India sent to UNESCO's General Conference large and distinguished delegations which played a significant role in UNESCO's evolving mission and in the formulation of its

rapidly expanding programmes and policies. We supported strongly the reconstruction of the educational systems of Europe and its cultural life which had been devastated during the Second World War. Our efforts were also directed to the liquidation of colonialism and racialism and the spread of freedom in dependent and subjugated territories. Special stress was laid on education for international understanding, and India developed a massive programme of associated schools under UNESCO's experimental programme. In 1960, after more than a decade of numerous proliferating activities, it was the joint initiative of the Indian and the United Kingdom delegations which led to a measure of concentration of UNESCO's effort by according an overriding priority to education. Earlier in 1956, at the Ninth Session of the General Conference held in New Delhi (the only time that the World Assembly met in Asia largely because of the leading role played by India, and especially Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Abul Kalam Azad), that UNESCO's major project for the mutual appreciation of eastern and western cultural values was launched. Indian historians collaborated in the preparation of the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind. The concepts of basic social education, evolved in India, exercised considerable influence over the development of UNESCO's own programmes of Fundamental Education and Functional Literacy. The Arid Zones Research Project was proposed by India and adopted by the General Conference. Eminent Indian scientist, the late Homi Bhabha presided over many distinguished gatherings of scientists and took India to the centre of the growing network of scientific cooperation. The programme for the application of science and technology to development found powerful support from Indian delegations. Indian specialists were prominent in the development of educational planning in different parts of the world, especially in Asia.

Two examples of India's faith in international cooperation, which also bring out the nature of its open democratic society in the Nehru era, deserve to be mentioned. Soon after independence, the Government of India requested UNESCO to provide specialists from outside to study the internal tensions of Indian society, a step which probably has no precedent in any other part of the world. A distinguished group of social scientists studied the problems with objectivity, contributing to the development of methodology as well as the discovery of new data on social tensions. In 1964, India's Education Minister, M.C. Chagla, appointed an Education Commission composed of Indian educationists, along with a few foreign specialists provided by UNESCO, to examine all aspects of Indian education. The Report of this Commission, the first international effort of massive dimensions, inspired improvements in the quality of education in several developing countries and India's example of including foreign specialists in a National Commission was followed by others.

The measure of India's interest in UNESCO is evident from the fact that two former Presidents of the Indian Union, S. Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain and the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, represented this country on its Executive Board in the formative years. UNESCO is the only organ of the United Nations in which India has retained a permanent place on the Governing Body and has virtually assumed the role of one of the major "cultural powers". India has also always been represented at the Steering Committee of the General Conference. UNESCO has honoured India by electing two Indians as Presidents of the General Conference and three Indian members of the Executive Board as its Chairman. No other member state of UNESCO has had such distinction. UNESCO has

drawn upon the services of Indian specialists in all fields; in 1970 India was the third largest supplier experts rendering technical assistance to developing countries on behalf of UNESCO.

Over the years, India has received considerable technical and material assistance from UNESCO through its regular and extra- budgetary sources. Numerous projects have been launched, and some of them have achieved outstanding results. India asked for UNESCO's assistance mainly in the fields of science and technology. The Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, which was launched and developed with UNESCO's assistance, is one of the best institutions of its kind in Asia. UNESCO has assisted centres of advanced study at Indian universities and in reorganising science teaching in secondary schools.

Among projects which have benefited from UNESCO's assistance are the Power Engineering Research Institute; Central Scientific Instruments Organisation; Refining and Petrochemical Division of the Indian Institute of Petroleum at Dehra Dun; Teacher training for the Engineering College at Warangal; National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology at Ranchi; six Regional Colleges of Engineering; post-graduate agricultural education and research; television production and studio technical operation training centre, Poona, and post-graduate educational institute of engineers. UNESCO has also helped various programmes of book development. The Delhi Public Library was established as joint UNESCO-India project. Indian classics have been translated and works of art reproduced and published in the UNESCO series. Recordings of Indian music have been popularised by the International Music Council. The Asian Theatre Institute, the Asian Institute of Educational Planning and Administration and the South Asia Science Cooperation Office in Delhi were established and operated with assistance from UNESCO. These examples show the nature and

magnitude of UNESCO's cooperation; and behind each project it is not so much the financial resources as cooperative action and rare skills that have been of great value. Throughout the Nehru era there was no obsession with material aid to the exclusion of intellectual cooperation and ethical action, which always received high priority from the Indian Government and delegations.

Thus India has continued to be an active and prominent member of UNESCO. It has given to it its loyalty and commitment and received valuable aid for development. Ultimately, in the field of international cooperation, especially concerning things of the mind, what we give is even more important than what we receive. India has all along strove to elevate the role of UNESCO in the family of the United Nations and thereby strengthen the forces of peace, cooperation and development. This cooperation between India and UNESCO has revealed new vistas and avenues. The concepts of education, development and humanism have undergone profound changes, thanks to UNESCO's action.

INDIA'S CONTRIBUTION TO UNESCO'S STRIVING FOR A NEW HUMANISM

To the founding fathers of UNESCO and the delegations of the 20 countries that assembled in Paris in 1946, education was merely a restoration of all western-oriented systems and structures of formal schooling that had suffered the ravages of war and wanton destruction. The extension of these systems to other parts of the world was the prevailing mood. Today, thanks largely to UNESCO's efforts, the concept of education and its contents, methods and structures have undergone revolutionary change, posing new challenges and tasks to all societies who must find their own solutions in the context of their specific

problems and conditions. Over the years, I have experienced the extension of education in time, space and content, and glimpsed the: wonderful potentialities of life-long learning that are still to come in new forms and modalities. UNESCO has reflected on learning to be; to this we should now add the need of learning to become and the urge for learning to transcend. I hope that with our cultural tradition of the past and the new strivings and goals of national development, India will contribute significantly to the education of the future, to the being, the becoming and the transcending of man and his societies, through the richness of diversities reflecting the creative spirit of man, towards a sense of universality.

The idea of development has been liberated from the blind imitation of western models and materialistic goals to a purposeful quest of quality of life from the real conditions and possibilities of each society and with the. fullest mobilisation of its moral, material and spiritual resources. National development has to be based upon active participation of all and to bring this about, education and communication have a crucial role. Modern science and technology can surely wipe out poverty; and the resources of the planet, both actual and potential, if wisely used, are ample and bountiful. UNESCO's ethical role in generating a new spirit of cooperation and a real commitment to the promotion of human rights and social justice holds the key to development. The quest for the quality of life, which is the essence of modern education and the distinctive mark of an education-oriented society, offers new hope and opportunity to poor and materially deprived societies. With the right type of education, which includes non-verbal culture and traditional values, a developing society can attain the satisfaction, harmony and comprehension that may elude more prosperous and sophisticated communities, obsessed with acquisitive wealth and vulgar consumption. The

dazzling achievements of man in outer space have to be matched now by an educational revolution affecting his miner space; a new union of science and spirituality is the main challenge posed to those who seek a great renewal of education. It is my ardent hope and my firm faith,that India may contribute significantly to UNESCO's quest for a synthesis of science and culture and through such a convergence serve the cause of development and life's quality.

India has specially stressed and notably participated in UNESCO's continuing search for a true humanism that liberates and exalts the spirit of man and gives new meaning to man's eternal quest of the good, the true and the beautiful. To regulate the attainment and use of power by practice of human values and the protection of human dignity is the only way of escape from the tyranny of the impersonal mass of machine and bureaucratic organisation. The humanism of the future that recognises and respects the diversity of cultures within the universality of the human condition should be an important goal of UNESCO which has emerged clearly after more than five decades of search and tests. It has been my good fortune to serve the cause of education and culture in UNESCO and in my own country; in the course of this marvellous pursuit of the things of the mind and the spirit. I have tasted the zest and elation that came from the impact of ideas, the fragrance of meeting some remarkable people around the world and the spice of struggle to achieve difficult and challenging tasks. In both success and failure it has been an exhilarating experience of learning and living. May we all continue to strive for the emerging humanism that enables and exalts the spirit of man in the ceaseless adventure of being, of becoming and of transcending.

APPRAISAL: CRISES MUST BE OVERCOME

With growing anxiety I have also noticed a recent trend in the decade of India's relations with UNESCO which needs to be watched and reversed. UNESCO has been increasingly dragged into political controversies, and the debates about the new world orders in the areas of economics and communications have been somewhat arid and bitterly acrimonious. To some extent this was inevitable as UNESCO could only reflect the state of the world in the ill-will and discord among nations. At the same time the world organisation became more bureaucratic in its functioning and more controversial in some of its policies and programmes. This unfortunate development was matched by the corresponding attitudes of member states who neglected cultural leaders and creative artists and confined their association with UNESCO to bureaucratic actions and channels. This is evident in the virtual fading out of the Indian National Commission for UNESCO. Governmental expenses over large official delegations and new bureaucratic modalities have increased appreciably, while India's moral influence upon the functioning of the World Organisation declined. In the process UNESCO's ethical action and its role of being the conscience of mankind, cherished by Jawaharlal Nehru has been undermined and its ideals and potentials receded from the vision of nations. It is now time to ponder over this unfortunate trend and try to reverse it. It is in the fruits of the mind and the spirit, and the dominance of ideas and moral values that UNESCO and its member states have to strive together in the pursuit of peace, development and human rights.

In the gathering confusion of thought and waning of faith that mark man's present predicament of grave threat to the very survival of humanity, let us derive hope and courage

from the words of Pablo Neruda and Martin Luther King, who nobly served UNESCO's mission and ideals. Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Laureate, who was my colleague on UNESCO's Executive Board, wrote: "I want the great majority, the only majority, everyone, to be able to speak out, read, listen, thrive... I write knowing that the danger of the bomb hangs over all our heads, a nuclear catastrophe that would leave no one, nothing on this earth. Well, that does not alter my hope. At this critical moment, in this flicker of anguish, we know that the true light will enter those eyes that are vigilant. We shall all understand one another. We shall advance together. And this hope cannot be crushed."

To this hope and faith of the poet, Martin Luther King brought his own dream of the future: "I have a dream that one day man will rise up and come to see that we are made to live together as brothers. I still have a dream today that one day justice will roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. I still have a dream today that one day war will come to an end, that men will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning books, that nations will no longer rise up against nations, neither will they wage war any more. I still have a dream today that one day the lamb and the lion will lie down together and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.

With a renewed faith and dedication to the mission of UNESCO the nations of the world and the explorers of the mind and the spirit of man can and, I believe, will succeed in overcoming the present state of crisis, threatening the universal character of the world organisation and its mission of strengthening human solidarity. I hope India will play as creative a role in this time of trouble and uncertainty as it did in the early formative years of UNESCO.