Bandung Conference

I use it in my lectures, in my published work, and on this podcast.

Indeed, it is certainly being used much more today than at any point since the historic Bandung Conference of 1955.

Many countries are comfortable using it, even though there are some, especially I would argue in the global north, who question whether the global south is any better than similar terms we've used in the past, such as low-income countries, developing countries, etc., But although I am increasingly using the phrase, I am doing so with a sense of unease, because I am, like perhaps many of you, well aware of the numerous contradictions the term entails.

Indeed, the Global South is sometimes used to signify a bloc in the sense of a group of countries that are acting together, often because they have a common set of grievances and claims against the Global North.

It's about uniting different groups of people on a particular land to develop and grow and come together and modernize together.

I think that was the spirit of, you know, Bandung Conference, um, you know, which had folks like Sukarno and Nehru and, and so on and so forth.

Yeah, it's interesting that you say that because you're saying that there is a pushback against imperialism, right? Which we, which we saw in the '70s and '80s.

But if you look at the Malaysian version, the Malaysian narrative of the far right, they are essentially saying that they're essentially blending those two together, that you can still be exclusionary.

Before I hand it over to Alicia, do you wanna speak a little more definitively about, like, is this a good group? Is this a useful thing? You've talked about 9/11, you've talked about sort of the history and the World Bank, but I didn't feel like you clearly said, "This is good," or, "This is an issue and we're gonna come back to that."

Well, India, you know, has always seen itself from the 1955 Bandung Conference as an aspirant leader of the Global South.

And I cannot recall where the idea originated from, but I do think what is very important are two points, uh, Rebecca.

One is that that was a moment where the economic distance between India and China was not very great, and where the, perhaps as a consequence, the geopolitical relationship was stable and even.

or less.

But Sukarno was very involved in the third worldist movement and he organized the Bandung Conference, which is like a famous third world conference at the time.

where the nations independently met without any fucking imperial nations present and discussed their own independence and their own sovereignty in the future.

Oh, cool.

India was a strong proponent of the non-aligned movement.

It was, you know, part of the Bandung Conference, the Afro-Asian Conference, you know, in the 1950s.

It was kind of a...

After, you know, 200-something years of colonialism, it was, you know... attempting to carry this mantle of the global south, of the decolonizing world, et cetera.

Libya is not a pro-Soviet country, but it is a very strongly anti-North American country, anti-imperialist at the time.

And it is also one of the leaders of the non-aligned group that comes from the Bandung Conference of the year 55.

Muammar Gaddafi is one of the great anti-North American leaders of the world, although he is not pro-Soviet.

We have Algeria, which is also strongly pro-Soviet.

It says it very clearly.

And, of course, from earlier the Kazan meeting of BRICS, the Rio de Janeiro meeting of BRICS, so it draws a line that historicity of the Bandung Conference has come out for the first time.

And that was clearly, you know, that was a foundational kind of arch of non-alignment.

And this is clearly the Indian hand, right? I think it's the Chinese.

I, I can argue, I can make two arguments.

One, uh, one interesting point I noticed in the Delhi Declaration was that there is a clear reference to the 1955 Bandung Conference.

Right.

And the Indians were a critical component of the Bandung Conference, the Indians and the Chinese.

I mean, it was, um, basically this was the Afro-Asian Solidarity Conference.

And BRICS statement says that we are actually driven by the spirit of Bandung.