The Hindu : International / India & World : Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan initiative in Singapore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

International

International - India & World

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan initiative in Singapore

By P.S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, DEC. 8. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has launched an International Cultural Centre here, in line with the organisation's advocacy of the "ideal" that "the world is one family." Inaugurated here on Saturday, it is the ninth in a worldwide cultural network the Bhavan is engaged in establishing.

Outlining the importance of the centre that would reach out to several South-East Asian countries, the Bhavan's international co-chairman, L.M. Singhvi, told The Hindu that "the spirit of the new Kendra is really to build bridges with the local society, with the people who may have a Chinese origin or a Japanese origin." As a propagator of Indian culture and values in an international setting, the "Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is an embassy of India at large," Mr. Singhvi, a former Indian High Commissioner to the U.K., said. The Singapore Kendra and the Bhavan's Indian International School (BIIS) here would enable students to "build a career in life for themselves and to live as citizens of the world, anywhere and everywhere, without being prisoners of the past and without being rootless."

With the Bhavan's traditional "Sarvadharma prayer" setting the tone, the inaugural function was marked by speeches and the release of a French book, Rama, Prince d'Ayodhya. Written by Bilkiz Alladin, it is published by the Bhavan's Singapore Kendra.

India's High Commissioner to Singapore, Alok Prasad, expressed the hope that the Bhavan would come to reflect the self-confident and resurgent India of the present times while continuing to project its heritage. The other speakers included the Bhavan's Director-General, Dhirajlal S. Mehta, and Singapore's Member of Parliament, Inderjit Singh, besides the Chairman of the Singapore branch of the Bhavan, Atul Temurnikar, and the BIIS Principal, V. Nandakumar. The Kendra, which started cultural education programmes in July, now has a student strength of 250. Mr. Temurnikar said the Centre's Indian language courses as also programmes in the fine arts were open to the Singaporeans as well.

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