New Delhi
March 2007

In the Name of God
When I travelled to India five years ago, I said that Indianology was equal to cosmology and that any one takes benefit from this world in a way or another. Hindustan of Upanishads and Wadas, Hindustan of Buda and silence and smile, Hindustan of Ahimsa, patience and frugality and Hindustan of Mahatma and the great soul of spirituality …
In fact, if today’s world had not seen Gandhi, could it ever believe that such combinations as politics with ethics, resistance with compassion, campaign without violence, victory not over but with the rival and domination of the world not by conquest but by ignoring it were ever possible?
In the historical view of us Iranians, India is the land of “life tree,” “elixir of immortality” and “tree of wisdom”. The tree which is described by Rumi as in:
Any one who eats or takes its fruit
He would never age or die
Today, I want to base my discussions on that epistemological and historical outlook to reach a defined strategy, which can become the topic of dialogue in conferences like this.
It has been correctly asserted that of all ancient Asian civilizations, the Indian and Iranian thoughts are closest together. Regardless of the old kinship that exists between the two civilizations, both share a philosophical and prudent understanding of the world.
Besides, the two also share a common “spiritual experience” – which will ultimately translate into freedom and salvation in the light of “Ishraq” and “mystical experience”. The experience in which embracement of freedom and salvation goes hand in hand with love for oneness and the will to get over paradoxes.
The power of synthesis, which is a prominent characteristic of the Iranian thought, is distinctively featured in India, embracing every thing from myths to philosophical opinions, from experiments to religious convictions, from democracy to development.
Dialogue about this “cultural heritage” and the power to combine paradoxes or contraries is not solely a concern for intellectuals and philosophers but provokes re-thinking about the drive force that can instigate survival, self-respect and the blossoming of a civilization in the age of communication and historical swiftness – for which India is a flag-bearer in the wake of its all-out and sustainable development.
Based on this discussion, the obvious question is whether there are “common grounds for an Asian thought” that can be spoken about - the common grounds that are based on that cultural heritage and have a thing to say and a plan to act upon in today’s integrated world.
As a matter of fact, Asia, which is the cradle of dynamic human civilizations and cultures and the platform of great religions, can be a place that engenders a generative global thought.
Asian cultures, given their deeply shared outlook on living, human beings and society, can make a contribution to generating global forces of civilization if communication between them continues to grow.
Further communication between original and genuine cultures that are based on thought, realism, moderation and aesthetics, will culminate in the enhancement and promotion of a just peace as well as in broad-based democracy and all-out development in the whole world.
Today the world is in dire need of interaction despite differences, friendship despite competition and unity despite pluralism. This is why we should reach a new perspective in terms of relations, cooperation and regional and international partnerships – an atmosphere in which the global community can stride on a new path far away from tension, interference and the domination of the world by those wielding power and wealth.
Unfortunately, colonialism and historical backwardness have prevented the ancient Asian civilizations from getting to know one another as much as they need to. The image we hold from one another is less of a direct type or one without mediators.
The image, made by others and the one through which we look at each other, is not perfect and transparent, if not say it is distorted. The input and the channels through which global communications take place will by no means mirror the full image of any of us. We should seek to discover new strategies and methods that are direct and work without mediators. Under such circumstances, dialog between thinkers and intellectuals engaged in any area ranging from culture and knowledge to politics, economics and sociology can help build new structures and trends that will give rise to development of Asian communication and integration of our civilizations, which will eventually facilitate our contribution to building a better world for ourselves and the rest of the people in the world.
I have spoken quite frequently about the ‘dialog of civilizations and cultures’ not only as a notion but as a strategy and work plan.
If the world is supposed to maximize the helpfulness of its wonderful and creative power in an age referred to as the age of communication, while minimizing all its destructive power existing on the same path, there is no other method but dialog to make this practical in all cultural and civilizational levels.
Let me emphasize a certain feature of dialog of civilizations, which has a long and precious record track in India and Iran – an aspect that can be used as a work plan for following up on dialog of civilizations in the world today. In this type of dialog, West is not posed against East or Asia against others. Instead, this dialog is a strategy that can boost the capacity of Asia and West versus violence, despotism, inequality and poverty.
I think of dialog in the horizon of the global civilization, which will help keep Asia, the West and the whole world away from horrendous conditions under which a ‘monolog’ system would be predominant.
The world, today, is broader than Asia, Europe, East and West and north and south. Like the past, we should have a loving heart and a spiritual thought in order to achieve a synthesis for freedom of human beings in the East and West.
Once, British poet of Indian origins Rudyard Kipling, when colonialism was in the ascendency, composed “East is East and West is West” and that they would never catch up. The piece reflects the arrogance and self-importance of a civilization, which, despite its great and astounding achievements, sought to dominate the world. Colonialism was engendered by this fantasy and illusion and at the same time held political and economic motivations proportionate to this morale.
Today is a different day, however. Today, that Western self-importance, which was the source of ignoring and humiliating others, is a plan hardly respected by the world’s intelligentsia. Nevertheless, its remnants are still witnessed in the precarious vision and methods advised by some powerful Western politicians – an issue that has not only put the West and East in trouble but has endangered the long-term interests of the West.
History, after Kipling, has kept in mind Gandhi, who would define the conquered East and arrogant West in a different paradigm. Gandhi’s grandeur lies in the fact that he even deprived himself of the gaiety of victory over his adversaries so the old wound could heal. He would reckon his victory, which was nothing but the victory of truth and non-violence, with a spectacular gentleness so even his enemy, who had driven him out of his homeland, would not feel humiliated.
In his view, East and West were not always the East and West as defined by colonialists. Perhaps he had belief in this piece by the German poet Goethe, who said “East and West both belong to God”. As I am certain that even in the West, Goethe had perceived this from God’s long discourse in the holy Qoran that “Vallah ul-Mashriq val Maghrib”.
Now that horror and terror has filled the East and West of the turbulent world of today, it is high time we thought of a new approach to save humanity. Dialog in the framework of the paradigm I just mentioned can make a great contribution to this.
We should use the experience human beings have amassed to realize that the materialistic brain of the West is, more than ever, in need of the Eastern wisdom, which is oriented towards elevation and perfection. Equally, the Eastern elevation-oriented soul needs the Western realistic and creative reason.
The devastating slits in the human body – both in the West and East – should be restored. We should contemplate the experience of human beings in order to attain a human, part of whose fate is composed in the West and the other part in the East.
Let us assert that the optimal human being is a combination of the Eastern soul and the Western wisdom and this would only be accomplished if the West and East chase dialog with a purpose and understand each other. This is a great notion that can and must be followed even in small-scale styles wherever possible.
We need a developed, progressive and humanistic world for all the people not for a certain proportion of the world’s population. Meanwhile, we should do our best to prevent the human’s perfection-oriented and truth-seeking soul from being plagued in the tight and routine curls of materialism. It is only then that we can witness human beings being released from the troubles caused by poverty, ignorance, despotism and incapacity against the nature. Under such circumstances, the expansive soul of humans, who are the creams of the crop of creatures, will not be taken captive by the materialistic demands of body.
Now is high time that the West and East looked into each other as supplementary entities rather than ones that oppose each other and tend to make the world a scene for a disastrous confrontation. They should learn from each other and see humans in the broad-spectrum perfection of their souls and make globalization translate into humanization of the world.
It is from this perspective that I stress a dialog of civilizations and cultures in the context of a conversation that is aimed at isolating and negating extremism and violence and tackling insecurity and discrimination in all corners of the world. This will then help thinkers and intellectuals, who appreciate pain, to join civil, national, regional and international organizations to pool ideas and think of ways to change the status quo of the world. They should help make a transition from a paradigm, consequences of which in the contemporary age have been world wars, regional wars, cold war, occupation, repression and terrorism, into a paradigm of peace, security and democracy, both at national and international levels.
You and we have looked at the world compassionately. Then what could be better than us building the human world on the basis of compassion and tolerance, enamelled with justice. Your and our thinkers and artists, who have envisioned and led these mysterious perspectives can open the horizons in the media or any other mediums or organizations in which they are involved