The Asian Future

For several decades the Western model of development has been criticized forcefully within Asia. But there has been little intellectual articulation of what the alternatives might be - at micro and macro level - from an Asian perspective. Do the various communities in Asia share anything significant beyond an abhorrence of the local effects of globalization and Western dominance?

These two volumes bring together the ideas and experiences of some of Asia's outstanding intellectuals and social activists from diverse traditions and faiths. Through in-depth interviews and dialogues an understanding of shared spiritual, social and ecological values emerges.

The fourteen contributors have each lived through political upheaval and periods of gross human rights violations. Their common ground is a passionate commitment to achieve change in society, including social justice and ecological sustainability. These are the voices of considered, engaged action and transition in Asia today.


The Contributors to this Dialogue:
Abdurraman Wahid (Indonesia), Chandra Muzaffar (Malaysia) and Mahmoud Ayoub (Lebanon/US) are Muslims. Samdhong Rinpoche (Tibet/India), Sulak Sivaraksa (Siam) Helena Norberg-Hodge (Sweden/Ladakh) are Buddhists. Satish Kumar (India/UK), Ashis Nandy (India) and Vandana Shiva (India) are Gandhian/alternative thinkers. Tu Weiming (China/US) is a Confucian scholar. Bishop Julio Labayen (the Philippines) is a radical Christian. Arief Budiman (Indonesia/Australia), Walden Bello (the Philippines) and Nakamura Hisashi (Japan) are all left intellectuals strongly identified with Asian culture.


'Many Asian countries have learned the lessons of how to become modern in a Western sense. Now the time is ripe for these countries to retrieve their cultural sources and to broaden the whole concept of modernization'

Tu Weiming

About the Authors:

Pracha Hutanawatr is a social activist and intellectual in Thailand. The programmes and organizations he currently directs are all searching for new, practical Asian alternatives to the present mainstream approach to development and globalization. He is currently Director of the Wongsanit Ashram near Bangkok; Deputy Director of Santi Pracha Dhamma Institute; Programme Director for Grassroots Leadership Training; and a board member of the Spirit in Education Movement. He has published several major books in Thai and is the translator of works by Thich Nhat Hanh, Fritjof Capra and E. F. Schumacher.


Ramu Manivannan is a teacher, scholar and peace activist from India. He has been closely associated with the Alternatives Movement in India and other parts of Asia, and is the founder of the Spirit in Life Movement. He is an Executive Member of the Nonviolent Peaceforce, USA/Belgium, an associate member of JUST, Malaysia, and was co-convenor of the Nonviolence Commission of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA). His many voluntary roles in India include serving as co-ordinator of Friends of Tibet-India in Delhi, and of the Burmese pro-democracy movement. A Reader in Political Science at the University of Delhi, he is the author of several books, including Shadows of a Long War: Indian Intervention in Sri Lanka (1988), and (editor) Social Justice, Democracy and Alternative Politics: An Asian-European Dialogue (2001).