India claims for a space in global politics
By Elias Mhegera – The emergence of new global economic forces will never go on without new philosophies and interpretations of world affairs. And this will happen whether there is mutual acceptance or not.
A peasant farmer using a power tiller to prepare his farm
To support this theory is the advent of Indian intellectualism which was propagated by a number of distinguished scholars from the Diasporas who discussed a range of issues at the Protea Hotel in Dar es Salaam on Friday and Saturday last week.
These scholars propagated that it was high time that Tanzania developed its own economic model rather than import those from its ‘partners in development’ which some are not relevant to the African realities.
‘Mwalimu’ Julius Nyerere and Premier Indira Gandhi in state visits
Shout-africa.com registered its presence at the conference which was organized in a cooperation of the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) and the US based Vassar College. It was sponsored by the International Development Research Centre.
The suggestion is that, all African countries can attain self independence if they emulate the discipline that was applied by Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, and China commonly known as BRIC countries. South Africa has been conjoined in this group to form BRICS.
Every speaker had a new story of how either India has managed to assume her new status of a ‘superpower’ in the making and how other nations of the world including African countries could copy this model, be it in philosophy, ideology or culture.
The conference was titled “Conference on India in Africa: New frontiers in South-South Relations”, and it was graced by the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Juma Mahadhi Maalimu as its guest of honour.
Speaking during a welcoming note, the Executive Director of Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) Dr Bohelo Lunogelo said that evidence based research is an essential prerequisite for development.
“Research should be the base of job creation and business opportunities which are needed badly in Africa’s attempt and struggles against poverty. Efforts which have been a common phenomenon during the colonial era and even in the post colonial era,” he commented.
‘Mwalimu’ Julius Nyerere and Premier Indira Gandhi in state visits
He added that cooperation between India and Africa has a long history and that through this cooperation there have been discussions about South-South cooperation, transfer of technology and even support in various aspects to the continental body, the African Union (AU).
Dr Lunogela noted that the pace of cooperation was invigorated by the Indo-African Summit of 2008 which explored opportunities in agriculture and industrialization.
For his part the Deputy Minister Maalimu also counseled that one of the best tenets of cooperation is to ensure that development is people centred. “This has always been one of the fundamental issues since when this kind of cooperation started be it in the South-South summits or those of the Non Aligned Movement,” he warned.
The Indian High Commissioner to Tanzania Debnath Shaw emphasized on the need to uphold the cordial relations which have stood for long time and make this turn into an avenue for discussing matters of mutual concern between India and Tanzania.
The convener of the conference Dr Zachariah Mampilly from the Vassar College in the US said that India and Tanzania have a lot to share in commerce, diplomacy and good governance aspects. This political science lecturer is attached at the University of Dar es Salaam.
Revisiting the history of cooperation, Prof Ajay Dubey from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in India said that India has always been part and parcel of the commercial activities prior to, during, and after independence of countries in this continent.
The don charged that since 2008, India has supported Africa through grants worthy over USD 165 Billion in the areas ranging from health, mitigating climate change, and food security, Tanzania being one of the beneficiaries.
He revisited the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) and later South-South Cooperation saying that they have helped in building capacities of developing countries by improving their economic and cultural lives that could have been affected by a stiff competition which existed during the cold war era between the USA vs USSR and its satellite states.
He defended the Indian population in the diaspora which have been branded as exploiters of the native populations. He instead, propagates that the long stay in their new destinations has made Indians to accumulate knowledge and experience. These elements have helped them to adapt with the new environments, wherever they are.
Prof Dubey recalled that India was instrumental in the support for the decolonization process including of African countries. The serious struggles started as early as 1920, and the first Afro-Asian Conference was convened in 1927.
“As you all remember in 1946 immediately after the formation of the UN, India started to support fully the African struggles against colonialism, racism and it supported an initiative for African countries to have its space in discussing world affairs.” He recalled.
He went further in elaborating how this solidarity was reinvigorated in 1961 with the advent of the NAM through the Belgrade Conference. Since then India was fully involved in the anti-colonial struggles in Africa, openly and underground.
Another scholar, Prof Gaurav Desai, Tulane University, USA said that Africa lost much of its rich culture through interruption by colonialists while India and Egypt remains as some of very few areas where the legacies of colonialism were accepted in very few aspects like education and language but the natives retained entirely their cultures.
He charged further even attempts by Afro-centrist like Leopold Senghor first president of Senegal did not revive fully the lost culture. He acknowledges the rich resources African cultures that were highlighted by Shanti Sadiq Ali in his book “The African Dispersal in the Deccan: From Medieval to Modern Times”.
This theory probably matches well by Dr Walter Rodney in his book: “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”. Prof Desai admitted that some elements of Julius Nyerere’s Ujamaa which emanates from African traditional lifestyles were adopted in India due to the closer ties that were strengthened by ‘Mwalimu’ as he is popularly known in Tanzania, and Indira Gandhi the former India’s Premier.
For his part, Prof. Vijay Prashad, historian, expert in international studies, journalist and columnist was for ‘Uhuru of the South’ claiming that there was a need for the South which is essentially made up of poor and few emerging economies to unite in order to have a strong voice in world affairs.
He condemned the tendency of some powerful nations to either intervene in internal affairs of weaker states and at times to instigate intra-conflicts. Citing examples, he says the US used to support Mohammad Reza Shah of Iran while the majority of his people wanted him out of power.
He also criticized the control that the US has been attempting to impose in Latin America by threatening the existence of Communist Fidel Castro when he was in power and most recently the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
But these presentations did not go without some criticisms as well. Sharkdam Wapmuk, research fellow, Nigerian Institute Affairs, said that the Nigerian experience towards the Asian community is somehow negative.
He admits that while this Indian population has been supporting a lot of development activities but it has remained ‘entirely closed’ and not fully integrated with the native populations.
Elaborating further he said that the Chinese population, although quite new in many African countries, are ready for adaptation and that they have gone to the extent of intermarriages and this has been the case in Nigeria, Sudan and even in Tanzania according to his quick observation.
A staunch Nyerereist who moderated the session defended that Nyerere introduced the Arusha Declaration after observing that there was a need for a ‘mental decolonization’.
“It was after realizing that some of his colleagues were elitist and wanted to assume a new role of ‘black colonialist’ that he introduced this declaration which was a halt to that degenerating process.” He remarked.
Implicitly, this was a response to Prof. Prashad who advanced that Nyerere introduced the Arusha Declaration in order to get a short cut to development by nationalizing properties of the Indian community.
“Lavish expenditures by the elites, and the fear of an imminent collapse led Nyerere to ambush Indians with his ambitious project which proved failure because it lacked long-term projections.” He had advanced.
Probably another weakness which resurfaced in those presentations was to think Africa was an empty continent in terms of culture and ‘civilization’.
Some statements which co notated this ‘cultural arrogance’ advanced that the Indian Ocean is the centre of civilization and that this ‘rich culture’ has spread all over the world including the African continent.
A critical analysis would tell that the richness of a culture is always a fusion of various cultures! This assertion by these Indian scholars is just a reminder of what was advanced by the bourgeoisie historians that
Africa is called ‘The Dark Continent’ because it is last of the continents to feel the influence of Western civilization; therefore many people consider it a backward continent.
This theory of taking Africa as a dumping site of ‘civilizations’ be it of Arabs, Europeans, or Indians was fervently disputed by Walter Rodney and many others in the materialist school of thought.
