India

This book, part of a two-volume exploration, examines the trajectory of India-China relations, spanning from the making of a common border to the events leading to the 1962 war. Relying on vast Chinese, Indian, as well as western sources, the study provides a detailed exegesis of the nature of conflict covering over a century of political contours in the British India, Manchu China, Republican China and finally the Republic of India and Peoples Republic of China. This includes the British as well as Manchu aggression in Tibet and the ensuing diplomatic manoeuvrability between various stakeholders, resulting in conclusion of various conventions and boundaries including the contentious McMahon Line and shifting line alignments of the Chinese in the Western Sector of India-China border. The domestic socio-political and economic climate as well as the equations that resulted from the Cold War between India and China have been looked into and analysed reflecting the Chinese and well as Indian perspectives. The special case of Sino-Pak entente and India-China rivalry in Asia as a whole has been analysed vis-à-vis their security concerns.

This book explores the transformation of India’s relations with Central and Eastern Europe from being a subset of Indo-Soviet relations during the Cold War to the rediscovery and rebuilding of relations with the region almost from scratch in the post-Cold War era. It examines how the combination of Brexit, the rise of China and India’s expanding geo-economic interests in Europe has led the Narendra Modi government to contemplate relations with Central Europe through a more strategic lens and treat the region as an autonomous element within India’s foreign policy rather than a footnote of its relations with other great powers.

This is a story about India. My India. It is a very personal story. You see, I’m exactly as old as India is.