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India-Indonesia: Allies on a journey of (mutual re)discovery
The name Indonesia (which dates to the 18th century) is derived from the Latin “Indus” (India) and the Greek “nesos” (island) due to the similarity in the two nations’ culture. The Indonesian language has so many loanwords derived from Sanskrit.
India and Indonesia are like siblings who grew up separately, but under similar circumstances. Both had to endure a long struggle against a foreign occupation, which was often vicious and brutal, which took centuries to overcome.
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A picture of Borobudur Temple's relief as showcased on Google's Art & Culture. Let’s face it: India is our mother culture: we got the Ramayana, Hinduism, Buddhism from India, Islam through Gujarati traders, and even our name. (Google/-)
D
on’t you love birthday celebrations? Well, in mid-August there are two very special birthdays. One falls on the 15th and the other on the 17th, one was born in 1947, the other in 1945, so, 69 and 71 respectively.
Spring chickens — for countries that is, because of course I’m talking about India and Indonesia. One happens to be my country of birth, and the other my country of citizenship.
Yup, I was born in India, as my parents happened to be posted at the Indonesian Embassy in Delhi two weeks before I popped out into the world. But it’s not for that reason that I am intrigued by the two amazing countries and the enduring engagement they have with each other.
Would you believe that they had a connection before they were born? If you mark their declaration of independence as a kind of “birth” that is. But in fact they are both old civilizations that have existed as entities for millennia, engaging in maritime trade, cultural and intellectual exchange. For example, during the Sriwijaya Kingdom period (between the seventh and 13th centuries) many Indonesians studied at Nalanda University in India. Well, I never!
Let’s face it: India is our mother culture: we got the Ramayana, Hinduism, Buddhism from India, Islam through Gujarati traders, and even our name. Yessiree!
The name Indonesia (which dates to the 18th century) is derived from the Latin“Indus” (India) and the Greek “nesos” (island) due to the similarity in the two nations’ culture. The Indonesian language has so many loanwords derived from Sanskrit. I owe not just my birth, but also my family name — which means “sunflower” — to the Indians. Secretly, I’m a proud Indian, but ssshh… don’t tell anyone!
India and Indonesia are like siblings who grew up separately, but under similar circumstances. Both had to endure a long struggle against a foreign occupation, which was often vicious and brutal, which took centuries to overcome.
In a way colonialism interrupted the relationship, but on the other hand it also strengthened it because of the common fate they had to endure. Freedom fighters of both countries were in touch and got inspiration from each other.
A fascinating anthology Me Sambal, You Chutney, written by Amol Titus, an Indian expat who has lived in Indonesia since 1998, includes a play entitled Air Visioner (see “Me Sambal, You Chutney: discovering Indonesia, India connections through literature”, The Jakarta Post, June 6, 2016).
Titus starts with an inspiring prologue about how the founding fathers of the two countries egged each other on to sow the seeds not just of independence, but also democracy.
In 1955, Indonesia hosted the Bandung Conference, which spearheaded the non-aligned movement, of which India was a strong supporter. Well, at least until the late 1950s. Then the Cold War evolved and India went into a more socialistic closed-economy framework during which time the Indian economy performed badly.
Then in 1992, a lot of things happened: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, the oil crisis and the disintegration of the USSR, which was a partner to India. They had what was called a ruble-rupee trade, which like the USSR, disintegrated, and the Indian economy went into a tailspin. They had no choice but to open up the economy and were forced into the global market. It took 10 years before India saw any returns, but when things started improving, Indians who had left, causing a brain drain, began to return.
The Sukarno regime also closed its doors to foreign investment and aid, but that changed when Soeharto came into power in 1966. While authoritarian politically, the Soeharto regime opened its doors wide open to foreign investment, making its Western-assisted, capital-intensive, growth oriented economic achievements a principal foundation of their legitimacy.
But hey, that’s in the past. Whatever its ups and downs, now India and Indonesia are recognized as the first-and fourth-largest democracies in the world, albeit still very much works in progress.
They face the same challenges of infrastructure, poor logistics, corruption, poverty and class disparities, energy problems, ethnic and religious tensions, and the need to greatly develop their health and education sectors.
What can the two countries learn from each other? There are three areas where India has a clear advantage.
The first is software and technology. Indians have a knack for mechanical, technical and mathematical stuff so when the software revolution happened 20 years ago, suddenly Indians found their niche. A striking achievement: from 1976 to 2016, India has launched 84 satellites. Approaching 2000 and the Millennium bug scare, Indians were able to cash in.
Indian software engineers were at the forefront of solving the problem. These things helped in building up their reputation.
It took a while but they never looked back and now India can compete internationally in the high-tech sector.
The second is education. Nehru placed a big emphasis on education and set up the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), which is heavily subsidized. In this way India was never short of engineers. Graduates end up on Wall Street in the Silicon Valley, the UN, etc. India also has global level scholars and created an entire academic literature on subaltern studies. But the pro-education mentality is across the board: parents would give an arm-and-a-leg so that their kids could attain a good education.
The third is democracy. Sure, it’s pretty chaotic, messy and full of scandals in both countries, but the difference is that the moderates in India have a loud voice. There is a level of debate that doesn’t exist in Indonesia. In Indonesia, with some exceptions, the moderates usually fall into the category of “the silent majority”.
Indonesia has nothing close to what India has achieved in terms of gaining a global reputation. So is there anything that India can learn from Indonesia?
Yes, according to Titus. They can learn social skills from Indonesians. In the realm of politics in Indonesia, there are fewer personal attacks against politicians. Indonesians are more respectful and restrained, and are better at consensus building.
Perhaps Indians could learn more from Indonesians if the latter made its presence felt more in India. The Indian Embassy has a Festival of India on a regular basis, but I don’t think Indonesia has an equivalent in India.
So how about it, Ambassador Rizali Indrakesuma? Maybe you could pioneer a Festival of Indonesia in India someday? And while you’re at it, get Indonesians to invest in India and take advantage of their growing economy, the way Indian companies are doing here?
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The writer is the author of Julia’s Jihad.
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