The fourth edition of Samvad – the Global Hindu-Buddhist Initiative for Conflict Avoidance and Environmental Consciousness will be held in Thailand from 14 to 17 February. This flagship outreach programme, initiated in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the late Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, is led and organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) in India, with the Japan Foundation as a key partner. The late Prime Minister Abe and Prime Minister Modi shared a special bond and a shared vision for a resurgent Asia.

For the fourth Samvad, VIF is partnering with the Bodhigayavijalaya 980 Institute (BGVI), a prominent think tank headquartered in Bodh Gaya, which also operates across the Greater Mekong region, including Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Inspired by Prime Minister Modi’s vision of an “Asian Century", BGVI has been undertaking Dhamma-Yatras across the region to crystallise this vision and narrative, shaping the Asian Century through Dhamma and Dharma. BGVI played a key role in the Dhamma Yatra held in January-February 2024, which saw the sacred relics of Lord Buddha taken from India to various cities across Thailand, receiving an overwhelming response.

Another key partner for the fourth Samvad is the Bharat Studies Centre at the renowned Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (MCU). The second day of Samvad will be held at the Bharat Studies Centre on MCU’s campus in the historic city of Ayutthaya—the civilisational twin of Ayodhya. Once a centre of trade, commerce, culture, and Buddhism in the region, ancient Ayutthaya was a prominent carrefour of the ancient world, serving as a bridge between Bharat and this part of the world.

The Bharat Studies Centre aims to foster and incubate studies and research in Indian philosophy, Buddhist studies, Pali, and Sanskrit. It aspires to emerge as a nodal centre for the study of great masters of modern India, such as Swami Vivekananda, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, and Sri Aurobindo, among others. The Centre’s academic leaders have studied at Indian universities and, therefore, take pride in calling themselves Hindus and Buddhists. Thus, organisations and institutions inspired by civilisational India, seeking to rekindle and forge anew these ancient linkages, are an active part of this edition of Samvad. The International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) and the Embassy of India in Bangkok are also partners in this Samvad outreach.

The theme of the fourth Samvad, The Asian Century of Dharma-Dhamma, resonates with Prime Minister Modi’s vision of the Asian Century—a century that must be centred on and inspired by Buddha. A century that will have sustainability, environmental consciousness, the preservation of traditions and cultures, assimilation, and adaptation as some of its defining pillars. Prime Minister Modi has often spoken of this civilisational dimension as the foundation for a new and inclusive global order.

Samvad has emerged as a gathering of policy-thinkers, experts, academics and spiritual masters representing inclusive and non-conflicting philosophies, which have no exclusivist ideologies. It has become a meeting arena for them to engage in an all-encompassing dialogue aimed at shifting the paradigm of global discourse on two critical issues........

© News18