The Indian Cultural Centre has now been renamed to Swami Vivekananda Cul­tural Centre.

The official ceremony was done on Thursday at the Indian High Commission in Suva.

The event was attended by Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, India’s Minister of State for Health and Family Wel­fare, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, and diplomatic dignitaries.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the renaming of the cultural centre was significant. Swami Vive­kananda and his teachings of liv­ing in peace, harmony, in spread­ing humanity is valuable.

“In this changing globalised world, we must be able to seek the core values of humanity and humanitarian assistance,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

“Just as the Indian Government has provided millions of dollars of assistance to Fiji after Tropi­cal Cyclone Winston in 2016.

“Also providing seeds for farm­ers.

“The economic empowerment of people is what we must focus on whether it’s actions or about our policies, we must ensure that we look after people on the mar­gins of society.”

Indian High Commissioner to Fiji Vishvas Sapkal said the re­naming of the Cultural Centre was because Swami Vivekanan­da was the main propagator of Indian culture around the world.

He said Swami Vivekananda’s first speech on September 11, 1893 in the Parliament of the World’s Religious in Chicago was tremendous.

Mr Sapkal said Swami Vive­kananda uttered for one and half minutes before he started his speech saying “My brothers and sisters of America”.

He said that was when the phi­losophy of India was introduced of addressing the world as one family.

“In our own way, we also tried to contribute to the philosophy.”

Edited by Ranoba Baoa

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