Bhubaneswar, July 29: Union Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Parshottam Rupala on Saturday graced the closing ceremony of three-day International Conference on ‘Kalinga and Southeast Asia: The Civilisational Linakges’ on KIIT Campus here.
“India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world with rich cultural heritage. The country is endowed with an extraordinary strength that sailed her through the freedom struggle, and also asserted that every Indian must take pride in its heritage as the country moves forward on the path of development,” said Minister Rupala.
Guest of Honour Dr. Chanthourn Thuy, Deputy Director General, Institute of Culture and Fine Arts, Royal Academy of Cambodia, said that overseas trade and maritime activities played a significant role in the spread of the glorious Indian civilization abroad.
“Indians and more specifically the people of Kalinga went to Southeast Asia and established colonies there,” he added.
Chairperson of PG Council, Utkal University Prof. Navaneeta Rath highlighted that Kalingans were the pioneers in the process that led to the transition to a true global system of cultural and commercial exchange.
Joining the 2nd international conference virtually, former bureaucrat Dr SK Nanda said the maritime trade of Kalinga brought prosperity to the kingdom which could largely be attributed to her overseas trade with distant lands like Indonesia, so much so that the maritime trade successes became the bone of contention between the Magadhan/Mauryan empire and Kalinga.
Professor, School of Humanities, Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya & Chairman, One Asia Foundation Dr. Chandi Prasad Nanda in his closing remarks said as the complexities underlying civilizational linkages between Kalinga and Southeast Asia came to be posed, the big story of ‘New Asianism’, ‘Asia as future’ , ‘Asian century’ and ‘Asian values’ by default have come under trenchant scrutiny.
Asia which has continued to be deployed so far as a useful term of alterity for Europeans, in terms of ‘us’ (for Europeans) and ‘them’ (for Asians) stands reversed as delineated through the thoughts of the research scholars, he informed.
While chairman of the conference and Director of IMS, Utkal University Prof. Upendra Padhi gave the welcome address, convenor and former professor of Sambalpur University Prof. Patit Paban Mishra presented the conference report.
