One Culture One Region (OCOR): RSS wants government to counter China's OBOR

To counter China's One belt, one road (OBOR) initiative, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh wants the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to respond with One Culture One Region (OCOR) plan.

In an article that appeared in the latest issue of RSS-affiliated journal Organiser, RSS swayamsevaks Ravi Shankar and Newton Mishra have argued that India should initiate OCOR, like SAARC for the Eurasian countries to counter China which wants to 'dominate the region to overpower India'.

Terming the OBOR as an 'imperialistic concept', the article says that OBOR cannot fulfill the present cultural vacuum in Eurasia, adding that China's claims of OBOR have no grounds as the history doesn't support China's argument.

The article says it was India, not China, which developed this region as a trading hub and introduced ancient Hindu and Buddhist thoughts. It says that OCOR "can be the new hope for the Eurasian countries which have recently got independence from the imperialism of communist Russia."

The article also highlighted some 'myths' associated with OBOR and the Silk Road. "Although China is claiming that it was 'developed in the Han Dynasty in 220 BC', the "Silk Road came in to existence only in 1877."

The "second myth" of the Silk Road is that "silk was never the prime commodity to be traded" on this route. The "third myth" is that the route "was dominated by the Chinese traders". "Indian traders actually travelled and traded in the entire Eurasian region," the article says.