India joins Korea in celebrating its own independence from colonialism on Aug. 15. Colonial India’s last viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten of Britain, chose the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II in 1947 as the date to transfer power to the new Republic of India, ending 90 years of dominion.

Unlike Japan, which forsook its 36-year occupation of Korea following a military defeat, Britain relinquished its colonial grip voluntarily as escalating anti-British uprisings threatened the viability of its imposed rule.

Like Korea that was divided into the communist North and democratic South, India was partitioned into Muslim-dominated Pakistan and Hindu-dominated India in 1947, with nearly 1 million killed in the process.

India’s Independence Day is celebrated relatively simply with a guard of honor for the prime minister, who delivers a speech on the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi ― a symbolic site of the Moghul Empire and the place where the Indian national flag was raised immediately after independence was gained.

The speech is an address to the people and an agenda for the government for the year ahead. 

“In last year’s address as a newly appointed prime minister, Narendra Modi set forth his vision of how he wants to transform the country,” Indian Ambassador Vikram Doraiswami told The Korea Herald on Wednesday at the embassy.

“It included a number of special focus areas ― the ‘Clean India’ public health campaign, the ‘Make in India’ manufacturing campaign with foreign investment, the ‘Digital India’ campaign for the information technology sector, education and safety for the less privileged and women, job creation for youths, peaceful relations with neighbors, tourism and global economic partnerships ― all of which are highly relevant to the India-Korea relationship.”

The newly appointed ambassador stressed that Modi has regarded Korea as a key partner for development “much more than Korea has given itself credit for.”

When asked some seven years ago, when he was the chief minister of the Gujarat state in northwestern India, which country he viewed as a role model for India, Modi pointed to Korea, the ambassador noted.

“Our prime minister has always believed that our partnership had not been tapped even to a partial degree given our potential,” Doraiswami said. “Modi is keen to engage Korea, which has begun to look beyond its immediate alliances with the U.S., China and Japan. If Korea looks further afield, logically, India would be one of the nearest strategic countries.”

Doraiswami pointed to Modi’s “Act East” foreign policy, which aims for deeper integration with Asian countries to the east, inheriting the “Look East” policy initiative announced 20 years ago. To this end, Modi visited Korea in mid-May after China and Mongolia.

“India and Korea have shared stakes in establishing a peaceful, stable and rule-based order in Asia and beyond, to allow safe and free flows of commerce in the maritime and aviation domains,” he argued.

Regarding the legacy of the British Raj, Doraiswami said that although Indians’ view of the past was not always positive, they currently do not blame the British government or people through a prism of gloom, instead cherishing the partnership through the Commonwealth and international community based on the shared values of democracy, free market and rule-based world order.

The Indian envoy emphasized that comparing the India-Britain relations and India-Pakistan relations to Korea-Japan relations and South Korea-North Korea relations should be done with caution and consideration of the different histories and circumstances.

“Following Mahatma Gandhi’s message, we wanted the British to leave as friends,” he noted. “They left amicably, and we did not dwell on the past. We wanted to deal with Britain with a measure of our own confidence that we did not need history to tell us who we were.”

The early development of the modern Commonwealth in the 1950s and ‘60s granted countries formerly under Britain’s tutelage equal footing and voices in an evenhanded power-sharing mechanism. This created a sense that the once-colonized and the colonizer had now become partners in liberating countries in Asia and Africa from their colonial shackles, according to the envoy.

“We have excellent relations with Britain through diplomacy, commerce, culture and sports,” he underscored. “The U.K. government provided valuable guidance and assistance in setting up our democratic institutions and norms. India did not seek colonial reparations.”

On the India-Pakistan relations, Doraiswami emphasized that “there is no desire to reverse history” of the partition, which took high human tolls on both sides. Unlike North and South Korea, which seek to reunite on their own terms, only marginal extremist groups in India and Pakistan endorse the reunification idea, he said.

At the same time, the ambassador added, India is committed to a peaceful, stable and economically integrated regional order through the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation established in 1985, which includes India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan.

“Full utilization of the SAARC will increase trade between India and Pakistan substantially ― currently between $2.5 billion and $3 billion a year ― and form constituencies on both sides invested in peace and prosperity,” Doraiswami said. “Creating better trade avenues and access to each other’s markets and peoples is the best way of forging trust, which is the best way of resolving problems. This is similar to the Korean government’s efforts to enhance trust with North Korea.”

By Joel Lee (joellee@heraldcorp.com)