India is one of the first countries that established diplomatic relations and a bridge of friendship with Kazakhstan, and since then our countries are linked by a strong friendship that continues to this day.

To strengthen the bridge of strong friendship between Kazakhstan and India, our country needs specialists with knowledge of the Indian language, culture, history and literature as well. For this purpose, in 1992, the Department of Indology was opened at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Today Al-Farabi KazNU is the only university in our country that trains specialists in Asian and Indian studies, who, in turn, are actively working in order to contribute to building a bridge of friendship between the two countries.

To date, about 200 Orientalists have graduated from the Department of Indology and are fluent in Indian languages (Hindi, Urdu). Among them are bachelors, masters, PhD, as well as candidates of sciences.

Since the opening of the Department of Indology at Al-Farabi KazNU, the Embassy of the Republic of India in Kazakhstan has been equipping it with all the necessary technical equipment (audio, video and television equipment, textbooks and literature). In this regard, it is worth to note that the Republic of India allocated 7,835,000 tenge in 2016 for equipping the Mahatma Gandhi Center at the Department of Indology, the Department of the Middle East and South Asia, Faculty of Oriental Studies of Al-Farabi KazNU. These all are the results of major bilateral agreements, trust and friendship between our countries.

Thus, the first event held on January 30, 2016 at the Mahatama Gandhi Center was the international online conference "Kazakh-Indian Cooperation: Past and Future." Since its opening, the Mahatma Gandhi Center has been organizing and conducting various cultural events, international conferences, scientific seminars and round tables.