The humanity that India represents today is a product of a civilization more than 12,000 years old. The spirit of assimilation and tolerance have been the hallmark of this civilization and it is therefore fitting that this conference, the theme of which is 'Promoting Interfaith Discourse in Multi-Religious Communities' is being hosted on Indian shores.

The spiritual basis for religious tolerance is the recognition of the common source of all the world's great faiths. A fair-minded examination of the actual utterances of the Founders of the great religions, and of the social milieus in which they carried out their missions will reveal that there is nothing to support the contentions and prejudices prevailing among religious communities.

Because it is concerned with the ennobling of character and the harmonizing of relationships, religion has served throughout history as the ultimate authority in giving meaning to life. In every age, it has cultivated the good, reproved the wrong and held up, to the gaze of all those willing to see, a vision of as yet unrealized potentialities. As the name implies, religion has simultaneously been the chief force binding diverse peoples together in ever-larger and more complex societies through which the individual capacities thus released can find expression.

Inspired by this perspective, the Bahá'í community has been a vigorous promoter of interfaith activities from the time of their inception. Apart from cherished associations that these activities create, Bahá'ís see in the struggle of diverse religions to draw closer together a response to the Divine Will for a human race that is entering its collective maturity. The members of our community will continue to assist in every way we can. We owe it to our partners in this common effort, however, to state clearly our conviction that interfaith discourse, if it is to contribute meaningfully to healing the ills that afflict a desperate humanity, must now address honestly and without further evasion the implications of the over-arching truth that called the movement into being: that God is one and that, beyond all diversity of cultural expression and human interpretation, religion is likewise one.