Defeat forces believing in exclusivist culture: PM

New Delhi, Mar 3 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today called upon the people to be open to ideas as espoused by Swami Vivekanand and Ram Krishna Mission to defeat the forces that believed in an exclusivist culture.

''I also urge our people to take a more liberal view of the outside world.... Why should we be inward-looking and suspicious of foreign influences when we have so much to offer the world,'' he said.

He was talking to reporters after releasing the book, ''The Cultural Heritage of India Vol. VII (Part One), edited by Art Historian Kapila Vatsyayan, of The Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata.

Referring to the media reports, he said some think China was a closed society with an open mind and India was an open society with a closed mind.

''This should not be the case. We must derive confidence from the greatness of our past to be able to deal more confidently with the present and the challenges of the future,'' he said.

UNI