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An exercise in strengthening relations

Pallavi Aiyar

A group of Indian youth spends 10 days in China as part of an exchange programme.

A MAGICIAN from the streets of west Delhi; a cyclist from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; a gram panchayat member from Chhattisgarh. In October, 96 Indians including doctors, parachutists, students, and jugglers — people whose lives would only improbably have crossed back home — spent 10 days travelling around China together. The group members had little in common, save their age. They were all under 35 years of age.

When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited India last year he proposed an exchange of youth delegations to further contacts between the neighbouring countries. Coinciding with the ongoing Sino-Indian year of friendship, an Indian youth delegation visited China from October 8-17. A similar Chinese group will travel to India at the same time as President Hu Jintao's trip in late November.

The Indian delegation was led by Madhukar Gupta, Secretary for the Ministry of Youth and Sports. "We are interested in promoting people-to-people contact between young Chinese and Indians, something that bringing this delegation to China has helped to achieve. But what's amazing is also the people-to-people contact between Indians themselves that has resulted," said Mr. Gupta.

The group travelled to four Chinese cities in a programme designed to give participants a sense of the sweep of Chinese history and a taste of the country's future. From the elegant snaking of the Great Wall of China outside Beijing, to the hyper-futuristic skyline of Shanghai's Bund, the delegation had a packed schedule.

For over half the delegates it was their first time abroad and their reactions to China were as diverse as the composition of the group itself.

"I had heard about the changes in China of course," said Vidya Shah, a classically trained vocalist, "but somewhere in my mind I still expected crowded streets and bicycles. When we got off the plane in Shanghai I was just blown away. The city matches up to New York in every way: the lights, the glitz and the glamour."

But Rafiq Maqbool, a photographer who learnt his trade on the streets of Srinagar, was disappointed at what he saw as China's loss of culture and lack of diversity. "You can see some big buildings and billboards here but it's all modern and bland. A copy of the West, lacking originality," he said.

"They [the Chinese] only wear Western clothes and even their museums are in standard modern buildings," he continued. The photographer was also struck by the absence of religion. "I couldn't see any temples or mosques anywhere," he said. "I wonder why?"

China is still officially an atheist country and despite a recent revival of religion most of the country's places of worship were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The absence of visible signs of religiosity was something members of the delegation repeatedly commented on.

During an interaction with Chinese students at Xian's Jiaotong University a delegate asked a first-year student what religion he believed in. The student looked hesitant, as though he didn't quite know what to make of the question, and then gave a little laugh. "No religion. I don't believe in God," he answered. Then seeing the wondering look on the delegates' faces he added a tad defensively, "But my grandmother is a Buddhist."

Lesson in discipline

What all the Indians agreed on was the impressive discipline displayed by the Chinese. Delegates constantly marvelled at the orderly flow of traffic along the cities' broad avenues. "India is developing economically as well but what really stands out here is the way in which people are disciplined and devoted to their work," said Preeti Choudhary, a Zilla Parishad member from Faridabad in Haryana. "Discipline is something we [Indians] are somehow lacking in," she continued.

A point driven home virtually every day of the visit by the behaviour of the delegation itself which never once managed to set out at the appointed time. For the organisers, it was a crash course in the meaning of "Indian Standard Time" and they soon took to telling everyone to gather an hour or so before actual departure times.

But the wily delegates quickly caught on to this strategy and the lateness continued. "It's so embarrassing," said Vidya Shah. "How can we give an impression of a country to be taken seriously when we can't even show up on time?"

Raffan, a magician from Kathputli Colony in Delhi, however, refused to feel guilty. "There was never any sunlight coming into my hotel room, so how could I be expected to get up on time? It felt like night," he said. And it wasn't only the lack of bright sunshine in China that left Raffan cold. "China is nothing great. I much prefer Barcelona," said the 24-year-old, obviously well-travelled, magician.

Gender empowerment

Preeti, who on the other hand was travelling abroad for the first time, was also agog with admiration for China's achievements in gender empowerment. "Everywhere there are women working; driving buses and taxis. If only it could be like this in Haryana," she said.

While some delegates were critical of China's one-child policy, being of the opinion that it violated human rights, for Preeti it seemed an empowering policy measure. "If in Haryana we also made it compulsory to have only one child, the lot of women would improve dramatically," she concluded.

The most photographed moment of the trip was the Guangzhou Olympic Stadium, an 80,000-seat, multi-purpose sporting venue that had the sportspeople in the delegation in raptures. Ronel Singh, a 20-year-old Wu Shu (Chinese martial art) specialist from a small town in Manipur, who had remained silent throughout the visit till this point, sprang into action, running around the stadium in awe-struck amazement. "We have nothing like this in India," he said mouth open. "They are so lucky here."

During the trip it became apparent that the greatest Sino-Indian cultural gulf remained — food. Despite the best attempts of the Chinese hosts to cater to the vegetarian needs of the majority of delegates, many participants found little to their taste at the slew of elaborate banquets thrown in their honour. Post-dinner food-fests in individual delegate's rooms thus became a common night-time activity. Britannia biscuits were passed around during these clandestine meetings as were, ironically, bowls of Maggie noodles.

The members of the delegation were aware that a short visit to China could only give them the barest of glimpses into Chinese society. Many said they wished the trip had been longer. But for some, such as this correspondent, who were on the less youthful end of the delegation's spectrum, the trip's flight-a-day schedule had been tiring.

For Aishwarya Aggarwal, a tennis player and at 13, the youngest member of the group, exhaustion was hardly an issue. Asked how she enjoyed the trip, Aishwarya replied with a braces-filled silver smile, "China was ok, but I had a lot of fun in this delegation being with such old people." Ouch!

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