The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organised a lecture by Dr. Shashibala, Dean at the Centre of Indology, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, New Delhi, the topic of the lecture being, ‘Faith and Empire-Tombs to Temples in China’. Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director VIF chaired the proceedings.

A distinguished panel of scholars and VIF faculty participated in examining the basic elements of geographical, historical, economic and religious interactions between the accepted outer boundary line of the Indian sub-continent and the major geographical zones which lie outside it, as described in this path breaking research volume. It was revealing to take a novel approach to look at Indian history from the prism of India’s borderlands.

In her fourth lecture of the series, Dr. Bala spoke about the small kingdoms situated on the Silk Routes that connected China and India through a vast expanse of desert. Kashgar as a centre of Vedic learning and Khotan as a centre of Buddhist learning were mentioned with the evidences of archaeological excavations which exemplified the influence of Indian culture along the Silk Route.

The adoption of 21st June as International Day of Yoga by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, in response to an India-led resolution with a record high number of co-sponsors, was a landmark event. Taking the cue from the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, it was felt that it is important to mobilise our ancient ideas and use them practically and strategically to build an Indian narrative. Prime Minister Modi has highlighted ancient Indian aphorisms such as ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, ‘Sarvajan Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya’ and others on different forums.