India has a tradition of debate & dialogue: President Ram Nath Kovind

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 18

India has a tradition of “vaad, vivaad, samvaad” and it needs to reconnect with its heritage, said President Ram Nath Kovind at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the India International Centre (IIC) today.

“I wish there were hundreds of IICs across India to promote discussion,” he said.

“The youth today want to learn more not only in terms of facts, but also in terms of tools of critical thinking necessary to arrive at the truth,” the President said, describing institutions like the IIC relevant in transitioning times.

He recalled the IIC’s genesis in 1958 as an international platform for exchange of views, saying the world at that time was coping with the legacy burden of the two world wars and new aspirations were shaping the world order.

“The IIC stands for a vision of India as a vibrant democracy where dialogues are possible in an atmosphere of understanding with national and international participation,” he said, hailing the institution for pledging to focus on women and gender issues.

“Let us not forget the fearless women scientists of the Mars Orbiter Mission and Covid warriors who healed the nation,” the President said, stressing greater participation of women in science, technology and management and elimination of structures of violence and exclusion that block women’s progress.

Former J&K Governor and IIC president NN Vohra retraced the institution’s steps starting late 1950s when it took root. He said Dr S Radhakrishnan, the then Vice-President, had been on a visit to Tokyo where the Indian community hosted him at the International House of Japan.

“Dr Radhakrishnan was fascinated by the building of the International House of Japan, its objectives and the way it was run. On his return, he discussed the concept with colleagues and then PM Jawaharlal Nehru. Later during his visit to the US, Dr Radhakrishnan had the occasion to meet John D Rockefeller III, the philanthropist who was assisting various countries in establishing beneficial institutions. A preparatory committee was set up once it was agreed that we will have an organisation on the lines of Japan,” the IIC president said.

Chintamani Deshmukh, former Finance Minister, chaired the preparatory committee. On January 22, 1962, Dr Radhakrishnan inaugurated the complex, now known as IIC.

“The preparatory committee realised that communities were dominated by cultures and decided that the institution would facilitate understanding of past and present cultures all over the world. To achieve this, it would have talks by historians, sociologists and eminent leaders of thought,” he explained.

He said the IIC’s original campus cost a “grand amount of Rs 60 lakh” of which the Rockefeller Foundation contributed a little over 40 lakh and 37 universities contributed about Rs 11.5 lakh. Remembering his association with the institution, Vohra said leaders like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Henry Kissinger and Kofi Annan had spoken at the IIC. “I can say with pride that the IIC has with great self-esteem discharged its objectives and sustained founders’ dreams and vision,” the IIC president said.

60 years of IIC

Dec 1958 The idea of IIC was initially proposed by John D Rockefeller III to Dr S Radhakrishnan, then Vice-President of India

Mar 9, 1959 Registered as a cultural, educational society

April 15, 1960 The first sod of earth on site turned by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, a life trustee and the first vice-president of the IIC

Nov 30, 1960 Stone laid by Prince Akihito, then Crown Prince of Japan

Jan 22, 1962 IIC complex formally inaugurated by Dr S Radhakrishnan

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