The Tamils are an ancient people with a profound sense of their own history, language, culture and architecture. The map of the Indian sub-continent over the centuries show that the empires of the Indo-Gangetic plain and the Deccan rarely extended beyond the Cauvery River, and never to Cape Comorin until the British came. The reason was not geography. There were no natural physical barriers separating Tamil Nadu from the North. What kept out conquerors was the strength of Tamil civilization which resisted absorption even in the face of superior force.

Why the Tamil race is so talented is for others to explain. The fact that it is to be seen in the persistent disproportionate representation of Tamils in the top universities and the Indian Administrative and Foreign Services. Of the three ethnic Indian Nobel Prize winners in the sciences, two were Tamil. Without Tamil scientists, India might still not be a nuclear power today. I make this last point without value judgement having read Chidambaram's eloquent speech in the Indian Parliament opposing the testing of nuclear weapons by the BJP Government.

Despite the idea of one India, which arose out of the British Raj, the distinctiveness of Tamil culture persists. As with any strength, however, this is also a weakness. As a result, Chennai is less cosmopolitan compared to Bangalore and Hyderabad in the IT field. The further Indians are away from India, the more Indian they feel. Sub-group affiliations become less important even though they still exist. Among Tamils, the feeling is stronger. This is because of the strength of Tamil culture.

Thus, in the worldwide Indian diaspora, there exists a Tamil network within the larger network. In an age of economic globalization, strong tribal networks perform an important economic role by reducing transaction risks. Ethnic business networks become the specialty of Indian groups like the Parsees, Jains, Sindhis and Marwaris, as also Chettiars, themselves a caste group within the Tamil community.

The globalization of India was first brought about by the British. The Empire scattered Indian seeds in all the five continents, using English as the global language and observing Anglo-Saxon laws and accounting principles in business. In this present age of globalization, that British inheritance has become a major advantage for Indians all over the world.

Under the British Raj, Singapore was really little more than an extension of India in Southeast Asia. Until 1867, the East India Company ran Singapore from Calcutta. Much of the legal and administrative tradition in Singapore today is derived from British India. Singapore as a city in the British Empire was an important node for the global Indian community operating within the framework of that Empire. Thus, supported by the Japanese, Subhas Chandra Bose established the Indian National Army in Singapore, and the site of his Memorial, which the Japanese built and the British destroyed, is marked across the Padang from the Supreme Court.

The first phase of Indian independence was intensely nationalistic causing Singapore's links to India to weaken. Unlike India which had a large domestic market, independent Singapore had no choice but to globalize early. When PM Narasimha Rao embarked on the reform and opening up of the Indian economy in the early 1990s, Singapore became again a natural extension of the Indian economy. In 1991, Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister and Chidambaram as Commerce Minister marketed the new India to Singapore. We then decided, as a matter of policy, to position Singapore as India's long-term economic partner, really reclaiming an old role for ourselves. We took the opportunity to attract Indian talent to our shores, re-stocking the pond as it were, thereby strengthening the links between our two countries and Singapore's position as a 21st century Indian hub in the global Indian network.

Culturally, India's influence on Southeast Asia goes back to the earliest days. Much of that influence emanated from South India, the Tamil component being the most important. The ancient Tamil epic - Manimekalai - steeped in Hindu-Buddhist-Jain tradition, alluded to the close religious and cultural links between the Tamils of South India and the peoples of Southeast Asia over centuries. The early Sangam literature described the trade links between South India and Kadaaram on the Malay Peninsula, now called Kedah. I-Tsing, a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk who spent much time studying Buddhism in Sumatra before going to India, reported regular sailings of ships between Kedah and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu.

In 1892, E. Hultzsch, a European scholar of Dravidian culture, deciphered part of a Tamil inscription found in Sumatra. This established that Tamil was used in Sumatran public documents in the 11th Century. The date of the record, AD 1088, corresponded with the reign of the Chola Emperor Kulottunga I whose long and prosperous rule lasted nearly half a century. Under his reign, the Chola Empire, which encompassed all of South India, extended its influence into large parts of Southeast Asia and conducted trade with Indo-China and China. A Chola fleet defeated Sri Vijaya in Sumatra.

Thus, Singaporeans and other Southeast Asians are more influenced by Tamil Nadu than many of us realize. In Chinese, there is a saying that, when you drink water, please remember the source. Unfortunately, when Singaporeans enjoy their fish-head curry, they don't often have time to recall its origin. Happily, economic globalization is re-establishing the old links and giving it new relevance.

This excellent initiative by the NUS Centre for The Arts under Edwin Thumboo's leadership expresses this new beginning. While it is the new globalization which is driving all such activities today, economics alone cannot sustain it. We must explore the other dimensions and celebrate them. It is right that Singapore should be an important centre of Indian, and specifically Tamil, economic and cultural activities because that is a position given to us by history. We are proud of the fact that Tamil is one of our official languages and that it is used on all our coins and bank notes. The more we understand and enjoy diversity, the more we appreciate our common universality. As is written in the Thirukkural: To discern the truth in everything, by whomsoever spoken, this is wisdom.

I congratulate the NUS Centre for The Arts and all the Tamil organizations which organized this conference; I thank the speakers for coming here to share their thoughts and insights, especially those who have come from afar; and I wish everyone here an enriching experience.