World religious meet in Kazakhsta

India among 60 nations attending Kazakh world religious meet

By Vishnu Makhijani
Astana, June 30 (IANS) Academics, clerics and leaders from 60 nations, including India, have gathered in the Kazakhstan capital for a global conference of faith and civilisations where they will deliberate on prospects of peaceful coexistence among the world's religions amid growing extremism and violence.

The Congress of World and Tradition Religions, being inaugurated by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev Wednesday at a unique pyramid-shaped building here, is a bold reminder to the world that people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds can and should live together in peace, its organisers say.

The nine-storey monument - Palace of Peace and Concord - rising more than 200 feet high has been built specially for the meeting of world religions.

Indian delegates, including Muslims, Hindus and Christians, say India should replicate the concept of faith-based dialogue in the times of growing religious intolerance.

"Every nation should show interest in holding such gatherings. It will only promote balance and moderation," said Maulana Salman Nadvi of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and head of the Indian Muslims' delegation to the two-day Congress.

"When people meet, they recognise each other. This helps in a better understanding of their viewpoints. It becomes a meeting of hearts and minds. What we have to understand that religion is being grossly misused. In the end, there is only one father and one god," Nadvi told IANS. J.M. Dave, who is heading the Swaminarayan faith delegation at the Congress, agreed with Nadvi that the concept needed to be taken forward.

"What we need is a permanent setup in all countries to take the world of the Congress forward," he said. Dave also gave the example of the Catholic church to drive home his point.

"Whenever the Vatican releases information, it is immediately distributed worldwide by the Catholic church through its vast network. It also has a very active website. We need to replicate this," said Dave, who is the chief spokesperson for the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS).

Amongst those attending the summit are Israeli President Shimon Peres, the Supreme Imam of the University of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammed Said Tantaui, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Secretary General Mark Perren de Brishambo, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos and former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Bondevik.

Terming the Congress a "good beginning", Swami Vishveshwaranand of Mumbai's Sanyas Ashram also spoke of the need for a "more broad-based" permanent secretariat.

"The dialogues should continue. The focus should be on problem resolution. The Congress should go to the roots of the problems that beset the world and work toward resolving them," he said.

He also lamented that there was "very little awareness" of the Congress in India because it was not a "hot subject" for the media. The first day of the Congress will be devoted to a plenary on "The role of religious leaders in construction of the world based on tolerance, mutual respect and cooperation".

The second day will be divided into three sections: "Moral and cultural wealth, world ethics", "Dialogue and cooperation" and "Solidarity, especially in crises". At the end of the inaugural Congress in 2003, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu and Tao leaders adopted a declaration stating that "extremism, terrorism and other forms of violence in the name of religion... are threat to human life and should be rejected". The second Congress was held in 2007.

--Indo-Asian News Service

Kazakhstan and India

Kazakh, but proud to be called
Indira

Sarwar Kashani
Almaty: People in Kazakhstan admire three Indian heroes - film legend Raj Kapoor, former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru - though not necessarily in that order.

Despite the huge popularity they enjoy in this Central Asian country, Raj and Jawaharlal are not common Kazakh names.

But many girls here are named after Indira Gandhi and the legacy continues."Indira", read the name tag of a receptionist at a luxurious hotel here. Asked if she was from India, though she didn't look Indian, her reply was an obvious "no".

She smiled and looked at the badge."Yeah. This is your prime minister (name)," she said in broken English.

"My parents have named me after Indira, an Indian empress who won millions of hearts in Russia during her visit in the 1950s," the 25-year-old said in the Kazakh language, as translated by an interpreter.

A 20 something waitress at a restaurant was also named Indira. "My parents named me after Indira Gandhi. I couldn't be like her but even the name is enough," she told this visiting IANS correspondent smilingly.

"Who knows," she wondered, "may be I will name my daughter after Sonia Gandhi - the most powerful woman in your country now!"

Their "pride" is shared by many young and middle aged women in this country of around 130 ethnic groups and 46 faiths with a predominant Muslim population.

"We don't know if Indira is a Muslim or Hindu name. I have read and known about Indira's charisma. She is an example of women's empowerment for the entire world," said Aiman, 30, an executive at a money exchange bureau in this picturesque city of Kazakhstan, a country that emphasises gender equality.

"Indian culture and politics have had an impeccable influence on Soviet people," said Temir Zhamankulov, a cultural expert here.

Indira Gandhi first visited the erstwhile USSR with her father, the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1955 during which she stayed in Almaty almost for half a day.

"But during her brief stay here she became so popular that people even now have not forgotten and that is why you find many Kazakh girls named Indira," Zhamankulov said.

The Nehru-Gandhi family's love for Russia is well known and it has been reciprocated deservingly in many former Soviet republics. Moscow has Indira Gandhi's statue.

A square in the Russian capital is named after Nehru.Central Asian political and cultural relations with India are age-old, the expert noted, recalling that Russia's first contact with India began with Afanasy Nikitin, a merchant from Tver on the banks of the Volga river who faced many odds before reaching India in 1469 and lived there for three years.

"Not only at the people level, many poets and writers in entire Central Asia have written poems and literary pieces dedicated to India, and modern Indian literature has been published in millions of copies in many languages of the former Soviet republics," he said.

Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at sarwarkashani@yahoo.co.in

India-Qazakhstan trade

China far ahead, but Kazakhstan still desires India alliance

Sarwar Kashani
Despite being slow off the block, India can still build close economic and trade ties with oil and mineral rich Kazakhstan as the country is keen to attract Indian investments and expand economic collaboration, experts say.

Kazakhstan is a potential goldmine and has rich deposits of as many as 99 elements out of the 110 listed in Mendelev's periodic table. Plus, it has large proven reserves of oil.Yet, while China-Kazakhstan bilateral trade is currently around $14 billion and is tipped to touch $15 billion by 2010, India-Kazakhstan bilateral trade stands at a minuscule $200 million or so, according to foreign office figures here.

China has also inked several energy partnerships with the oil rich Central Asian countries including Kazakhstan and is an active member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that includes besides China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

But despite China's lead, Kazakhstan is still keen to attract Indian investments and expand economic and trade ties.Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Nurian Yermekbayev told a visiting IANS correspondent: "We are interested in India's partnership in information technology (IT), space research and oil exploration."

Says Indian envoy Ashok Sajjanhar: "Indian businessmen couldn't take advantage of Kazakhstan's tax incentives during the initial years of its independence. But it is never too late."

Kazakhstan is still keen to attract investments from India in a number of sectors where the Southeast Asian economic giant has an edge over most other countries such as education, petrochemicals, IT, tourism, power generation and transmission, oil refining, railways and agriculture as well as agro-processing, he says."Even collaboration in space research can be a great bet," Sajjanhar told IANS in this business hub and capital city of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan possesses the world's eighth largest oil reserves, the world's largest lead, tungsten, barite, and uranium reserves, the world's second-largest chromite, silver, and zinc reserves and the third- largest deposits of manganese besides significant deposits of gold, copper and iron ore.

Located near the northeast portion of the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan claims most of the sea's biggest known oil fields. According to the Energy Information Administration of the US government, Kazakhstan's combined onshore and offshore proven hydrocarbon reserves have been estimated between nine billion and 40 billion barrels - comparable to OPEC members Algeria on the low end and Libya on the high end.OPEC stands for Oil and Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The country produced approximately 1.45 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil in 2007 and consumed 250,000 bbl/d, resulting in net petroleum exports of around 1.2 million bbl/d.Oil exports are the foundation of the country's economy and have ensured that average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth has stayed above nine percent for the last six years, making it one of the fastest growing countries in the world.

India, on the other hand, imports nearly 70 percent of its oil requirement, most of it from the Middle East. To overcome its dependence on the Middle East, the country needs to diversify its sources of oil import.

For India, the most attractive oil domain outside the Persian Gulf is the Caspian Basin. Recognizing this, India is already trying to befriend the region and gain a foothold.But experts say India must do more to build meaningful relationships with countries such as Kazakhstan.

Says strategic expert Sanat Kushkumbayev: "It's time India looked towards east in its close neighbourhood rather than focusing only on the west."Kushkumbayev is deputy director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies."

For Kazakhstan, India is strategically a vital partner. India has a responsible role in the Central Asian region. And our country is especially interested in collaboration in oil refining, railways and agriculture," he adds.Kazakhstan, the last Soviet republic to declare independence in December 1991, is a country bigger than the whole of western Europe.

It is nestled between two Asian giants - Russia and China - sharing borders with Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea.Since its independence, the country has received more than $40 billion of foreign investment and, according to official estimates, the country's oil and gas sector is tipped to attract $150-200 billion in the next 10 years.At the official level too, Kazakhstan is very keen to expand ties with India given New Delhi's increasing demand for uranium to fuel its growing nuclear energy requirements.

Thus, despite China's substantial lead and its far-reaching presence in the Central Asian region, experts say it is still not too late for India to join the race and leverage its edge in many sectors like oil exploration and space research.