CIAO DATE: 10/05

From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond: democracy and identity in today's India

Abstract

Thank you very much, Dr. Geithner, for that introduction. It's good to see you all here this afternoon. I must say I am reassured by the generosity and the brevity of your remarks, because when one comes to universities, one dreads discovering how one is going to be introduced. You know, especially these days when people look you up on the Internet and ascribe to you assorted sins of omission and commission, which you might not actually have performed. Actually, I have a friend at a university who likes looking up his speakers on the Internet, and introducing them not only by who they are and what they have done, but by references to their ancestry, things he's found out about people up the family tree. And in fact, on one occasion he had a speaker whose uncle had been electrocuted at Sing Sing prison for kidnapping and armed robbery or something equally horrible. Well having taken the trouble to look this up, he felt he had to use it, so he said to the audience, "And now, our distinguished speaker had an uncle who occupied the Chair of Applied Electricity at one of the nation's leading institutions." [audience laughter], This is just by way of saying that some of these kind words should be taken with the appropriate pinch of salt.

It is indeed an honor for me to be asked to deliver your keynote address today, both as an Indian and as a United Nations official. I should say, however, that am speaking today only in the former capacity, as an Indian writer and not as a U.N. official. I am, of course, often asked how I can reconcile my passionate faith in India with my internationalist work for the United Nations. I see no contradiction; indeed, both emerge from the same pluralist convictions. The Indian adventure is that of human beings of different ethnicities and religions, customs and costumes, cuisines and colors, languages and accents, working together under the same roof, sharing the same dreams. That is also what the United Nations, at its best, seeks to achieve. But as an international civil servant speaking to you on his own time, let me stress that I am doing so in a purely personal capacity.

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