INDIA-ARGENTINA
By Gustavo Canzobre*
W
e are close to the celebration of the 70 years of
Diplomatic Relations between India in Argentina.
Along this time, and even before, India and
Argentina have had an enduring passion born a long time
before.
This is an attempt to recall the early origins of Argentina´s
interest in India, and how it has grown over decades and
centuries up to nowadays.
A 96-day Voyage to Kolkata
The fi rst offi cial reference to an Argentine getting to India
shows how Argentina´s approach to India, even because of
random circumstances, dates from long ago. It was 1848. At
the Spence Hotel lobby in Kolkata, a young Argentine traveler
appeared, a contrasting presence among the distinguished
English guests who used to stay there. After 96 days on
board a ship, this 17-year old boy would be the fi rst known
Argentine to travel to India. This youngster was Lucio V.
Mansilla, an outstanding character of Argentine culture,
son of a military hero and cousin of Juan Manuel de Rosas.
Mansilla would later become an important military man
himself, a journalist and writer. He was sent to India just by
chance: his family had discovered that, since he’s underaged
girlfriend belong to the high society Lucio did, he was about
to secretly escape from the country with her in order to get
married. And besides, his father noticed he was getting too
close to liberal ideas, as he had found Lucio reading books
by Rousseau, thus clearly confronting the nationalist ideology
held by Rosas, his powerful uncle. Therefore, his parents
decided to send him to India as a commercial representative
of the family business so that his mind could get rid of such
weird behaviour.
Sailing along the South African coast and the Amsterdam
Islands, his ship got to Kolkata after 96 days. Thanks to his
literary abilities, which would later make him an important
writer in his generation, Mansilla wrote the first travel
chronicles on India in Argentine literature. They are part
of his travel diary written between 1850 and 1851. He was,
properly speaking, a dandy and he lived like that in India: he
spent all his family business funds on having the very best
of lives. Neither interesting records nor literary skills can be
found in his writings, though. Mansilla usually felt bored of
his life in India: “The city of Kolkata, undoubtedly one of
the most beautiful in the world, must be considered under
two aspects; fi rst, the houses of the Europeans, which are
magnifi cent, and second, the natives, who are the dirtiest and
most disgusting imaginable”.
The way the commonly named 1837 Generation
approached the East in general, India included, is still not
present in Mansilla’s writings. This group, headed by the
great politician and educator Domingo F. Sarmiento, shared
a European view who associated Europe with the so-called
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PAST AND PRESENT OF AN ENDURING PASSION