Former Indian Ambassador speaks at UTRGV: Cultivating peace through music

Nirupama Rao, the former Indian Ambassador to the United States, spoke about the connection between diplomacy and music as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series Nov. 6 in the Performing Arts Complex on the Edinburg campus.

The Distinguished Speaker Series is a signature program under the leadership of Student Activities that aims to provide the university and surrounding community with world-class speakers and lecturers, according to the Student Activities webpage.

Rao was the first woman spokesperson of the Indian foreign office, she also served as India’s first woman high commissioner ambassador to Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2006 and was the ambassador of India to the United States from 2011 to 2013, among other qualifications.

The former ambassador is a founder of The South Asian Symphony Foundation in 2018, aimed for young musicians to foster artistic talent and creativity in the region of South Asia. 

Rao said music inspired her to go into a career of diplomacy.

“My adolescent years were in a small town in South India, we listened to a lot of music,” she said. “We listened to the radio, and the radio became this box which all the sounds of the world came to us.”

The former ambassador used music to make a connection and transition from diplomacy.

“I think diplomacy and music are not foreign to each other,” she said. “And diplomacy is also about soft power. Music essentially talks about communication. It is about communicating a message that speaks of the human experience, whether it’s in love, war, religious faith or spiritualism. Music encompasses every sphere of human endeavor. And therefore, it’s not foreign at all to diplomacy.”

Rao said there was great diversity in South Asia and there was significance in creating an orchestra.

“We come from a region which has a very rich cultural tradition,” she said. “A beautiful history of music, dance and theater. Also, we absorbed influences from every part of the world. We are open minded when it comes to our culture and enhancing or absorbing from outside in order to make our own traditions more rich and varied.”

Jeffrey Ward, College of Fine Arts dean, said Rao “used an orchestra as an analogy of community.”

“There’s a diversity of people playing different instruments, and we may have different languages but we have a common place where we can share our humanity,” Ward said. “I thought that was really profound and really beautiful.”

Rao said the purpose of creating an orchestra is to represent what society should be.

“A model of a group of people who learn to listen to each other,” she said. “The art of listening is so important. If we have to cultivate peace among nations, we have to learn to listen to each other. But not to talk at each other, but to talk to each other. But to absorb, learn and to understand and abandon prejudice.”

Former ambassador Rao said she has influences from other countries when it comes to music.

“Today, the middle east is so divided by conflict and suffering,” she said. “But, very few of us realize that it’s out of the Middle East that many of our musical instruments came. The string instruments, both West and East. For India too, we have indigenous music traditions. But, we have also been able to absorb from Central Asia, from Iran, from further West.”

Joshua Parra, a junior vocal performance major, said Rao inspired him.

“The power of music, and how it has influenced everyone in many shapes and forms regardless of someone’s cultural background, or any sort of background at all,” Parra said. “Music is our defining phenomenon that helps bring everyone together.”