On the morning of June 13, 2023, Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni, renowned Indian scholar, founder of the Forum for a New South Asia in Mumbai and erstwhile aide to former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee, delivered a lecture titled India-China Relations and Mutual Civilisational Learning to the faculty and students within and outside of the Institute for International and Area Studies (IIAS), Tsinghua University. Professor Jiang Jingkui, Executive Deputy Director of IIAS and Director of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, attended the lecture. He Yan, IIAS assistant Professor, presided over the lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni reviewed the status quo of India-China exchanges. He noted that given the decrease in high-level visits and people-to-people exchanges in political, economic and other fields in recent years and the widening information barriers between the two countries, relevant content on social media platforms has influenced public perception. He then went into depth with the historical relations, origins of civilizations and current issues of the two countries, saying that the two countries have countless examples of cultural exchanges over the past 2,000-plus years and in particular, extensive exchanges in the fields of religion and culture have paved the way for bilateral ties. Meanwhile, as two ancient countries, India and China have shared a lot of philosophical commonalities in the process of long-standing cultural accumulation and exchanges, and the two civilizations both show respect for life and inclusiveness toward the world. He emphasized that it is thanks to “inclusiveness” that the two major cultures have continued to evolve and enrich themselves.

Next, Mr. Kulkarni went on from India-China relations further to the current international relations and development of civilizations. As he sees it, each civilization has its own unique characteristics in the process of development. As different countries and regions now have closer ties, independent of each other and closely interconnected, “inclusiveness” has therefore become a “keyword” in cultural exchanges and interactions between different countries and regions, and it is precisely when different civilizations interact with each other that they can explore the shared civilization of humanity. Finally, Mr. Kulkarni pointed it out that India and China should strengthen mutual understanding, take civilizational interactions as the first step of sincere communication and rebuild the bridge of communication in political, economic, cultural and other fields.

At the end of the lecture, Mr. Kulkarni had a lively and constructive exchange with the faculty and students present on various topics, such as the development of India-China diplomatic relations and the status quo of people-to-people exchanges.

Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni is a renowned Indian scholar, founder of the Forum for a New South Asia in Mumbai and a distinguished alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He used to work as aide to former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee and secretary to former Deputy Prime Minister of India LK Advani. He is the author of many works, including Music of the Spinning Wheel: Mahatma Gandhi’s Manifesto for the Internet Age, Swami Vivekananda in Mumbai and Maharashtra, A Monk from Bombay: Swami Vivekananda’s Historic Voyage from Mumbai to Chicago, August Voices – What They Said on 14-15 August 1947 and Its Relevance for India-Pakistan Rapprochement, etc.