Rudra Chaudhuri's book examines a series of crises that led to far-reaching changes in India's approach to the United States, defining the contours of what is arguably the imperative relationship between America and the global South. Forged in Crisis provides a fresh interpretation of India's advance in foreign affairs under the stewardship of Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and finally, Manmohan Singh. It reveals the complex and distinctive manner in which India sought to pursue at once material interests and ideas, while meticulously challenging the shakier and largely untested reading of 'non-alignment' palpable in most works on Indian foreign policy and international relations. From the Korean War in 1950 to the considered debate within India on sending troops to Iraq in 2003, and from the loss of territory to China and the subsequent talks on Kashmir with Pakistan in 1962-63 to the signing of a civil nuclear agreement with Washington in 2008, Chaudhuri maps Indian negotiating styles and behaviour and how these shaped and informed decisions vital to its strategic interest, in turn redefining its relationship with the United States.

The Sino-Indian War of 1962 delivered a crushing defeat to India: not only did the country suffer a loss of lives and a heavy blow to its pride, the world began to see India as the provocateur of the war, with China ‘merely defending’ its territory. This perception that China was largely the innocent victim of Nehru’s hostile policies was put forth by journalist Neville Maxwell in his book India’s China War, which found readers in many opinion makers, including Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. For far too long, Maxwell’s narrative, which sees India as the aggressor and China as the victim, has held court. Nearly 50 years after Maxwell’s book, Bertil Lintner’s China’s India War puts the ‘border dispute’ into its rightful perspective. Lintner argues that China began planning the war as early as 1959 and proposes that it was merely a small move in the larger strategic game that China was playing to become a world player—one that it continues to play even today.

Humanly compelling, beautifully told ... brings to light a forgotten chapter of Indian history, one we need to remember in these troubled times' PRATAP BHANU MEHTA '[Joy Ma and Dilip D'Souza] have seamlessly woven together historical facts with personal stories about how the Chinese- Indians lost the country of their birth' YIN MARSH The untold account of the internment of 3,000 Chinese-Indians after the 1962 Sino-Indian War. Just after the Sino-Indian War of 1962, about 3,000 Chinese-Indians were sent to languish in a disused World War II POW camp in Deoli, Rajasthan, marking the beginning of a painful five-year-long internment without resolution. At a time of war with China, these ‘Chinese-looking’ people had fallen prey to government suspicion and paranoia which soon seeped into the public consciousness. This is a page of Indian history that comes wrapped in prejudice and fear, and is today largely forgotten. But over five decades on, survivors of the internment are finally starting to tell their stories. As several Indian communities are once again faced with discrimination, The Deoliwallahs records these untold stories through extensive interviews with seven survivors of the Deoli internment. Through these accounts, the book recovers a crucial chapter in our history, also documenting for the first time how the Chinese came to be in India, how they made this country their home and became a significant community, until the war of 1962 brought on a terrible incarceration, displacement and tragedy.

Mani Shankar Aiyar Looks Back To The Changes That Have Taken Place During The &Lsquo;Time Of Transition&Rsquo; &Mdash;The Two Decades Since Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Left Office After The Lok Sabha Elections Of November 1989. Rajiv Gandhi Was The Fourth Prime Minister Of India In Four Decades Of Independence, But The Last Twenty Years Have Seen As Many As Eight Prime Ministers And Several More Governments. Accompanying The Change From Single-Party Governance To The Instability Of Coalition Politics Are Major Transformations In The Pace, Trajectory And Even The Goals Of Nation-Building. It Is These Contentious Transitions That Are Reflected In The Five Major Themes Of This Volume: Democracy, Secularism, Socialism, Nonalignment, And Neighbourhood Policy. Mani Shankar Aiyar Was Both A Witness To, And A Reluctant Participant In, These Processes Of Change: As Joint Secretary In Rajiv Gandhi&Rsquo;S Prime Minister&Rsquo;S Office, As An Mp Since 1991, And Today As A Cabinet Minister In The United Progressive Alliance Government. His Columns For The Indian Express Are Analytical And Vivid Commentaries On Their Times, Written In The Author&Rsquo;S Inimitable Style. This Collection Sheds Light On A Critically Significant Era In Contemporary India.

Among cataclysmic events that have shaped India’s post independence history, none compare with the conflict ‘in’ and ‘over’ the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir is truly unique as not only is it the nub of the Indo-Pak feud, but also with her other adversary – China. Historically speaking, Kashmir has remained a frontline ever since the Great Game. In view of China’s growing outreach and the fact that Kashmir’s occupied territory link both India’s adversaries, it portends volatility in the India-Pakistan-China triangular relationship. Brig Amar Cheema’s well–researched endeavour recounts the Kashmir imbroglio beyond episodic accounts but by providing the record in continuum; provides a broader perspective. The Crimson Chinar delivers a blow-by-blow account of the many ‘wars,’ and continues the narrative through the phases of ‘No War-No Peace,’ ‘insurgency’ and ‘limited war’ that have progressively ravaged the state. The context and geo-strategic environment has been re-created based on in-depth research and captured the rationale of the times. The important take away being; ‘wherever’ and ‘whenever’ India has responded ‘pro-actively’ and with determination, results have been significantly different; 1965, 1971 and Siachen being prime examples. With myriad external and internal dimensions, Kashmir continues to cast shadows on the progression of the sub-continent. Peace remains as elusive as it was in the forties; if anything, the adversaries – both known and unknown, have grown stronger. While the reasons for the conflict may have changed with the times, the underlying causes remain as profound as they were decades ago.

This book provides a technological history of modern India, in particular the Nehruvian development in the context of the Cold War. Through a series of case studies about military modernization, transportation infrastructure, and electric power, it examines how the ideals of autarky and technological indigenization conflicted with the economic and political realities of the Cold War world. Where other studies tend to focus on the political leaders and economists who oversaw development, this book demonstrates how the perspective of the engineers, government bureaucrats, and aid workers informed and ultimately implemented development.