Make that 0.01 percent by end of few centuries later!!

From In-Chin Closer by Sudheendra Kulkarni

• My inspiration in this effort comes from one ancient Indian sage, Buddha, and two modern Indian sages: Mahatma Gandhi and Tagore. Gandhiji wrote in 1942: “As a friend of China, I long for the day when a free India and a free China will cooperate together in friendship and brotherhood for their own good and for the good of Asia and the world.” Gurudev’s words, spoken at the opening of ‘Cheena Bhavan’ in Shantiniketan in 1937, are my guide and command. “(There is) an ancient pledge implicit in our past…The pledge to maintain the intercourse of culture and friendship between our people and the people of China, an intercourse whose foundations were laid centuries ago by our ancestors with infinite patience and sacrifice.”

• I also draw inspiration from those eminent Chinese who understood India’s true greatness. Amongst them was Prof. Tan Yun-shan, Tagore’s comrade-in-arms in founding ‘Cheena Bhavan’. He wrote: “Riding on the white horse I head / Towards the path trodden by old sages;/Something I hold close to my chest:/My great ambition yet to manifest./Gone are the Tripitakas into antiquity,/Supplementaries are needed for posterity./Who is ready to undertake the task/To make moderns better than men of the past?” 

• …the Chinese Premier, one of the few philosopher-statesmen in the world today, has said: “Friendliness accounts for 99.99 per cent of the 2,200-year-old Sino-Indian exchanges and misunderstanding merely 0.01 per cent. It’s high time we buried that 0.01 per cent and re-established the 99.99 per cent.”