Asian

AAPSO and the Asian Region

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Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization and the Asian Region Prepared by E.A. Vidyasekera Secretary Co-ordinator and Incharge of the Asian Section

Solidarity Movement was a historical process. It was the Asian Region which was mainly instrumental in the initiative for the creation of the Solidarity Movement. The reasons were quite obvious as the decolomisation process started in Asia with India becoming free in 1947 followed by her neighbours, Pakistan, SriLanka (Ceylon) Mynmar (Burma) and Indonesia.

The Indian freedom struggle has its unique characteristics. Even before India attained independence, the leaders of the

Indian freedom Movement- Mahatma Gandhi and Javaharlal Nehru had stipulated the importance of co-operation with the Asian and African people. As part of this vision, Asian Relations Conference was convened in Delhi under the patronage of Javaharlal Nehru in 1947 before independence. Nehru charted the philosophy of future India of Solidarity with African and Asian people when he became the prime Minister in 1947. Despite enormous hardship and difficulties the government of India decided to provide large number of scholarships to Asian and African students to study in Indians universities. This was the first practical step followed by any developing country at the time for enhancing co-operation and economic development.

This step was further extended when the five independent countries in the region - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Mynmar (Burma) and Indonesia formed the Colombo ---powers and convened a Conference in Colombo in 1954 to enhance co-operation, economic development and to assist the other colonies to attain their independence.

On the impact of this Conference, the first Solidarity Organization was setup in India followed by Sri Lanka. These Solidarity Organizations became the nucleus of the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization after the historic Bandung Conference which convened in 1955 in the Indonesian city of Bandung. Therefore the role of the Asian Solidarity Movement was formidable despite ups and downs of this movement. We recollect this historic role with pride when we commemorate the 50th anniversary of AAPSO.