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Korean Wave in India

Korean wave started in India much earlier than other Asian nations but in a different way and spheres. In the beginning, Indian people came to know about Korea’s valiant struggle for freedom from the Japanese rule when Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru admired the gallantry of Korean people, particularly youth, during their national uprising known as Sam-il Movement. When this massive patriotic upsurge was being crushed cruelly in Korea, almost at the same time Jalianwala Bagh massacre occurred in India. This brought a feeling of kinship between both peoples. It was at this important juncture of Korean history that Ravindra Nath Tagore of India wrote his famous couplet describing Korea as the “Lamp-bearer of the East.” Consequent upon the rising sentiment of support to the Korean cause, the Indian National Congress in its annual session of 1942 expressed its solidarity with the Korean people in their heroic struggle for independence.



Emotional and Togetherness Wave
The post-War division of Korea just after its liberation from the Japanese occupation caused as much anguish in the hearts of the Indians as the Koreans. None else could understand the dismay and grief of the Koreans better than the Indians who also suffered the holocaust of partition of their country on the eve of independence from the British rule. That is why India in its capacity as the Chairman of the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (set up on 14th November 1947) tried its best to obliterate the obnoxious demarcation of the Thirty Eighth Parallel before it could be converted into an interstate border. It pleaded earnestly that “the commission was only interested in facilitating the independence and unity of Korea so as to enable it to take that which suited it best from both the American and Russian systems, and evolve a system of its own in harmony with its own traditions and culture.” But unfortunately Indian urges fell on deaf ears of the occupying powers that came to Korea as its liberators. Yet, it was the Korea War of 1950-53 which generated greater awareness and concern about the Korean issue among the Indian people at large. India supported the UN Security Council resolutions of 25th June 1950 calling for “immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of the North Korean forces to the 38th Parallel,” and of 27th June requesting the members of the United Nations to “furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area.” But India refrained from sending combat troops to the war theatre as it did not wish to be involved in the internecine bloodshed of fellow Asians. Instead, it sent a contingent of Army Medical Corps to Korea in order to serve with the United Nations Forces. It is said that the Indian “maroon beret became a symbol of friendliness all around. Their touch was like tonic. Wounded American, Australian or Korean soldiers received the same humane treatment. Even the enemy prisoners of war were amazed at the kindness and courtesy shown to them by the Indians.” India also became instrumental in bringing the eventual truce by resolving and handling the intricate issue of Prisoners of War. Even Seungman Lee, who was in the beginning opposed to the very presence of the Custodian Force of India on the Korean soil, said at the time of its departure that he and his people wanted to say goodbye to CFI with thanks for having done so much under difficult circumstances. All these happenings and involvements stimulated a keen interest in Korean affairs among the political and educated elites of India. It stirred a politicoacademic type of Korean wave in India.

The Academic Wave
In view of the growing interest in Korean affairs among the Indian academic circles, Indian School of International Studies (constituted in 1955 under the auspices of the Indian Council of World Affairs) began to provide an opportunity to its students to opt for Korean studies as their main field of research. A few of them went to Korea for learning Korean language and for acquiring first-hand knowledge about Korean culture and civilization. Some of them became the pioneers of Korean academic wave in Korea. But the real intensification of this wave commenced with the establishment of a full fledged Department of Korean Language at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in 1969. In June 1970, Indian School of International Studies was also incorporated into Jawaharlal Nehru University and was renamed as the School of International Studies. A Centre for East Asian Studies comprising an exclusive Department of Korean Studies was d in this School which gave a further boost to the Korean wave among the Indian scholars. When I joined this School as a researcher in 1977 and went to the university library in search of study material, a member of library staff commented that “every one is after Korean Studies these days.” Both the departments of Korean Language and Korean Studies attracted a good number of students from far and wide provinces of India every year. Many of them specialized in both fields and spearheaded the subsequent expansion of Korean studies in the country. By 1980s, Korearelated seminars and conferences began to be held at India International Centre in New Delhi just about every year. At the suggestion of the Cultural Attaché of the Korean Embassy in New Delhi, I myself convened an Indo-Korean Dialogue at Gwalior city (situated 320 Km south of Delhi) in January 1995. It was first such an event in the central province of India known as Madhya Pradesh. The inaugural session of this Dialogue was attended by more than 500 educationists drawn from different places of Madhya Pradesh. It showed that more and more Indian intellectuals, belonging to the central parts of the country too, were being affected by the Korean wave by that time. In 2001, a Korean Studies Division also came into being at the University of Delhi under the aegis of the Department of East Asian Studies in order to meet the growing demand of students and scholars interested in this field. By the beginning of 21st Century, Korean academic wave spread to the southern parts of India as well. An indication of this trend was the establishment of the Department of Korean Language at the University of Madras. In December 2007, a very successful Workshop on Korean Art and Culture was organized at Chennai (erstwhile known as Madras), the capital of Namilnadu state of India. While participating in this workshop, I found several young scholars belonging to South India quite enthusiastic to know more and more about Korea.
They even sought my help and advice in organizing a seminar on Korean History and Culture at the University of Thanjavur situated further south of the “Great Indian Peninsula.” It seems that the Korean wave is engulfing the scholastic communities of the whole of India from North to South.



Economic Wave
Yet another Korean Wave in India is economic in kind. At the outset of 1980s, news about the emergence of Korea as one of the economic ‘Tigers of Asia’ took the Indian public by storm. Articles with captions such as “Korea on the Move” and “Korea: Today and Tomorrow” began to appear frequently in national dailies. As the Indian people were still struggling to eliminate poverty and improve the standard of their living, information regarding the “Miracle of Han River” caught their imagination.
Many an economist felt that India should emulate the Korean model of development. Particular mention was made of the success of the New Community Movement of the Republic of Korea in changing “one of the world’s poorest agrarian societies into an upper middle-income and fastindustrializing country.” Some of the Indian social scientists acclaimed this movement as “a fusing of economic development with enhancement of the total personality of the individual.” In this way, a clamor began to emerge among the Indian entrepreneurs to collaborate with the Korean enterprises. The opportunity came with the opening of the economy by the Government of India in 1990s giving up the hitherto followed socialist pattern based on a restrictive system of “quotapermit-raj.” Within no time, enormous and booming commercial and industrial transactions between the two countries began to take place. Korean conglomerates such as Lucky Gold Star, Samsung and Hyundai started their roaring businesses in India. Made in Korea electronics, automobiles and textiles became proud possessions of Indian households. Thus the Korean economic wave spread far and wide in India at an unprecedented scale.

Cultural Wave
All the same, in spite of flourishing trade and display of Korean products in every nook and corner of the country, the men behind those products were still strangers to the Indian man of the street. A need of bridging this paradoxical gap between the peoples of two ancient civilizations of Asia was being felt for a long time. Nowadays some steps are being taken in this direction as well. The visits of several Korean cultural groups and their performances have been arousing great interest among the Indian audiences. Apart from people to people exchanges and contacts, telecasts of Korean serials on the national channel (known as doordarshan) such as the ‘Emperor of the Seas’ and ‘A Jewel in the Palace’ have been particularly successful in introducing the traditional culture and civilization of Korea to the millions of Indian viewers living in urban as well as remote rural areas of the country. Among these, ‘A Jewel in the Palace’ became tremendously popular among the Indian viewers including children. My suggestion in this regard is that Munwha Broadcasting Corporation should telecast some more serials depicting the freedom struggle of Korea and the recent transformation of the Korean society. Such kinds of serials may become even more popular among the Indian viewers because of the similarities of situations and turmoil in Korean and Indian societies during their transition from traditionality to modernity. Some films related to Korean Buddhism such as ‘karuna’ may also be liked very much by the Indian public as the themes of such films may coincide with the deep seated ethos of Indian society. Moreover, telecasts portraying the various facets of Korean Buddhism may also bring out the spiritual affinities between Indian and Korean societies.
India is itself a living museum of diverse cultures and civilizations. There are numerous varieties of food, dress and fine arts in the Indian subcontinent which encompasses many regions of different climatic and geographical conditions. Therefore, any new variety of them does not instill much curiosity among the Indian audiences. What India lacks is the unity of purpose and a clear-cut vision of development because of too many differences of opinions and aspirations of the various segments of its society which is still fragmented and at cross roads.
Therefore, what impresses the Indian psyche most is the concerted actions taken by the Koreans for changing their destiny. It is the recent transformation of the Hermit Kingdom of Korea into a vibrant and thriving nation as well as its rapid socioeconomic advancement that overwhelms the imagination of Indian people. It is the main stimulus of Korean wave in India.

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