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ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

India must stop being the ‘gentle elephant’. Modi’s Europe tour marks a strategic shift

Narendra Modi’s visit to the Netherlands was long overdue. His recent visit resulted in the upgrading of the bilateral relationship with the Netherlands into a strategic partnership.

India’s culture and civilisation are our gift to the world. It is a composite culture spread worldwide. It also influences how India engages with the world, especially the West, from the time of Alexander of Macedonia, in 326 BC.

Noted Dutch scholar and Indologist, Professor Dirk Kolff, said, “Why it should be India, and not another place on the face of the Earth, that should claim so much of the curiosity of the Dutch?”

He answered his own question: “India represents Europe’s most fascinating ‘Other’.”

Indeed, having had the privilege of representing India in this beautiful country as Ambassador, I believe that it appropriately sums up the eternal fascination of both countries for our histories and cultures and with regard to India, a fascination for our antiquity and diversity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit reflected this mutual fascination.

A 400-year-old connection

Dutch footprints in India go back more than 400 years, when the first ship of the Netherlands East India Company reached the famous Malabar Coast in Kerala, known as the Spice Coast. There has been no looking back. Off the beaten track, one can find remains of the Dutch period in our history along the entire coastline from Surat to Kolkata, as well as from Visakhapatnam to Kochi and Pulicat. 

Successive Dutch envoys to India proudly recall that on 15 August 1947, the then-Dutch Ambassador was among the three Ambassadors present in Delhi when the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the famous “Tryst with Destiny” speech. 

PM’s visit to the Netherlands was long overdue. His recent visit, as part of a five-nation tour, which included the UAE, Sweden, Norway, the 3rd Indo-Nordic Summit and Italy, resulted in the upgrading of the bilateral relationship with the Netherlands into a strategic partnership. It also added new dynamics to the India-EU partnership.

The Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendson said the new........

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