The concept of MOTSAC has emerged from the seed-ideas in the Independence Day Message issued by Sri Aurobindo on 15th August, 1947 at the same time when Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru was delivering his ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech. Sri Aurobindo was the first recorded voice in Indian history to claim total, full and complete independence from British rule. He was also the first voice to articulate on the day of independence itself that the unresolved communal discord would increase in magnitude, inviting further disruptive forces and would only be solved on the basis of a program for common action that would foster some sort of pragmatic, regional unity. He emphasized that mere harping on peace and concord would not suffice and that ways and means of a program for common action would have to be creatively constructed. MOTSAC aims to visualize, hypothesize, construct campaign, motivate and effectuate a viable program for common action leading to an orchestrated unity and harmony in South Asia.

A section of Indian communists were also skeptical on the day of independence, though for a different reason. They were ostensibly upset as they considered that independence did not emerge as the end result of their idolized class conflict. It took some time to outgrow their oversimplified attitude that failed to acknowledge the great Nationalistic upsurge that led to freedom. Nevertheless, as all movements are based on partial truths, the seed-ideas inherent in the communist skepticism indicate that a resolution of the class-conflicts should also be incorporated in the vision for common action. However, the conditions of the world in the contemporary era of globalization are different from the Marxist zeitgeist necessitating a change in perspective. MOTSAC aims to study the ideal of human unity from a comprehensive, integral world-view where materialism and spirituality, pragmatism and intellectuality, economic and non-economic factors are given their rightful places.

The MOTSAC forum has been hosted by Mirravision Trust which also hosts the Institute for Integral Yoga Psychology (www.iiyp.net). The MOTSAC emblem is a visionary map of South Asia drawn by Mirra Alfassa, The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry (now renamed Puducherry), intending to represent the consciousness-matrix of the subcontinent.