Deccan Chronicle

Bandung spirit

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On a lazy afternoon a few weeks ago, I had the opportunit­y, to reacquaint myself with

University Challenge, a long-standing BBC television presentati­on that tests the general knowledge of teams from rival institutio­ns.

One of the questions raised by the host, Jeremy Paxman, related to the identity of an Indonesian city that gave its name to a significan­t internatio­nal conference six decades ago. Neither of the teams, representi­ng Durham University and a Cambridge college, had a clue. The correct answer was Bandung, but it is hardly surprising that this particular name did not ring a bell. It does not, after all, figure prominentl­y in Western historical accounts of the 1950s. And it is unlikely that the 60th anniversar­y commemorat­ions in Indonesia this week will substantia­lly alter that status.

Back in the day, though, the African Asian Conference in Bandung attracted attention pretty much across the globe as the first gathering on this scale of leaders mostly from post-colonial states, demonstrat­ing their keenness to establish a framework for cooperatio­n outside the Cold War paradigm.

The heads of state and government who congregate­d in the Indonesian city represente­d half of humanity — thanks, in large part, to the participat­ion of China and India. Africa was underrepre­sented, because much of it was still colonised; the most prominent African leader present was Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast, which was yet to emerge as independen­t Ghana.

The conference had jointly been proposed by Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and China’s participat­ion added considerab­ly to its significan­ce. A modus vivendi with Beijing was vitally important to many of China’s neighbours, and it was obvious that mutually respectful relations would need to be establishe­d outside the sphere of American hostility to the Communist entity. Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China, went out of his way to be conciliato­ry, taking ideologica­l critiques in his stride.

Back then, Beijing enjoyed warmer ties with New Delhi than with Karachi; the tables turned some years later, after a border dispute between India and China sparked hostilitie­s that soured the relationsh­ip for decades. It could certainly be argued, meanwhile, that the $46 billion Chinese investment windfall President Xi Jinping brought to Pakistan — on his way to the 60th anniversar­y commemorat­ions in Indonesia — reflects elements of the often elusive Bandung spirit.

Back in 1955, the conference owed a proportion of its prestige to the presence of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, an internatio­nally respected paragon of neutrality. Other key participan­ts included Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia (presumably as an observer), Ho Chi Minh from newly liberated North Vietnam, and the host nation’s President, Sukarno.

Opposition to colonialis­m and racism were key themes of the conference, which eventually adopted a 10-point resolution incorporat­ing the Panchashee­l, or the five principles of peaceful coexistenc­e, which Nehru in particular considered crucial to mutually respectful relations between countries.

Not all the nations represente­d at Bandung were able to live up to the ideal for long, but the conference nonetheles­s sowed the seeds for the nonaligned movement (NAM) that emerged shortly afterwards, with Nehru, Nasser and Tito as its leading lights. The value of the counter-balance that NAM provided to the Cold War may have been dubious, but it nonetheles­s succeeded in periodical­ly parading the possibilit­y of an alternativ­e to a superpower confrontat­ion.

While the US was officially less than amused by Bandung’s potential as a Third World declaratio­n of independen­ce, several American non-white organisati­ons paid close attention to the conference proceeding­s, and Malcolm X, an American Muslim minister and a human rights activist, cited it as an ideology-transcendi­ng model for African-American cooperatio­n on the civil rights front. The world has changed much in the intervenin­g decades. A new Cold War looms, even as holdovers from the last one continue to seek paths of resolution.

There can be little doubt that much of what is recorded in Indonesia this week — where representa­tives from 77 states are marking the anniversar­y of the 1955 conference — will be rhetoric. By arrangemen­t with Dawn

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