Indian diplomacy, a veteran told Shashi Tharoor many years ago, is like the love- making of an elephant: it is conducted at a very high level, accompanied by much bellowing, and the results are not known for two years. In this lively, informative and insightful work, the award-winning author and parliamentarian brilliantly demonstrates how Indian diplomacy has become sprightlier since then and where it needs to focus in the 21st century. Explaining why foreign policy matters to an India focused on its own domestic transformation, Tharoor surveys the country's major international relationships, evokes its soft power and global responsibilities, analyses the workings of the Ministry of External Affairs and parliament and assesses the impact of public opinion on government policy. Indeed, Tharoor presents his ideas about a contemporary new grand strategy for the nation, arguing that India must move beyond non-alignment to multi-alignment. This book sets out a clear vision of an India now ready to assume global responsibility in the contemporary world. Pax Indica is another substantial achievement from one of our finest Indian authors.

In this lively, informative and insightful book, Shashi Tharoor brilliantly demonstrates how Indian diplomacy has come of age and forecasts where it will need to focus in the new millennium. He surveys India’s major international relationships in detail, evokes the country’s soft power and offers his thoughts on a new ‘grand strategy’ for the nation, arguing that India must move beyond non-alignment to multi-alignment. Stimulating, reflective, elegantly written and passionately engaged, Pax Indica is another substantial achievement from one of the finest Indian authors of our times.

In this lively, informative and insightful book, Shashi Tharoor brilliantly demonstrates how Indian diplomacy has come of age and forecasts where it will need to focus in the new millennium. He surveys India's major international relationships in detail, evokes the country's soft power and offers his thoughts on a new 'grand strategy' for the nation, arguing that India must move beyond non-alignment to multi-alignment. Stimulating, reflective, elegantly written and passionately engaged, Pax Indica is another substantial achievement from one of the finest Indian authors of our times.

Former India Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran has had a ringside view of the most critical events and shifts in Indian foreign policy in the new millennium. In this magisterial book, Saran discerns the threads that tie together his experiences as a diplomat

Hinduism is one of the world's oldest and greatest religious traditions. In captivating prose, Shashi Tharoor untangles its origins, its key philosophical concepts and texts. He explores everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste, and touchingly reflects on his personal beliefs and relationship with the religion. Not one to shy from controversy, Tharoor is unsparing in his criticism of 'Hindutva', an extremist, nationalist Hinduism endorsed by India's current government. He argues urgently and persuasively that it is precisely because of Hinduism's rich diversity that India has survived and thrived as a plural, secular nation. If narrow fundamentalism wins out, Indian democracy itself is in peril.

The City and the Country in Early India: A Study of Malwa is about the emergence of urban centres in the sixth century bce, and analyses the processes and spatiality of urbanization, taking Malwa as its case study. Earlier research on urbanism has focussed on either literary or archaeological sources. While literary sources tend to locate the agency for change exclusively in preachers and rulers, in archaeology, the forces of change become nameless and faceless. The study of inscriptions from Malwa helps in restoring agency to common people. The beginnings of urbanism are to be found in the pre-literate past, and, therefore, require an analysis of archaeological data. Using insights from anthropology and studies of early states, in the first half of the book an attempt has been made to look for new ways to account for urbanization. The second half of the book tries to understand the process of urbanization by examining epigraphic and literary sources. The process of the emergence of urban centres created new forms of division of space: urban centres were surrounded by villages which in turn were surrounded by wilderness. This book tries to recover the histories of their complex interrelations. Since caste and kinship are considered central to the world of Indian sociology, an attempt has also been made to understand the relationships between caste, kinship and urbanism. Changes in the attitude of the literati towards the city and the country have also been examined.