The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread to discuss India's Foreign Relations and any books or discussion ideas related to this topic area.

Please feel free to discuss and post anything related to the thread - remember no self promotion.

India has actually done well with its foreign relations compared to its neighbor Pakistan.

Discussion topic: Historically, the divide between India and Pakistan stems directly from British policies when India was split at the time of their independence. At that time the British were trying to avoid bloodshed but their division policies actually strengthened that divide. Prior to this event India was one country which included Pakistan.

What are your ideas about India today and what should have been done when India became independent which were not attempted?

What should be done today about the continuous conflict in Kashmir?

For those of you who are interested in the "history of that event" - here is a great book on the subject:

by Larry Collins

In terms of looking at India - let us take a look at it geographically:

India is officially known as the Republic of India and comprises of 28 states and seven union territories. India is the second most populated country in the world and world's largest democracy.

Spread over an area of 3,288,000 km sq, India is the 7th largest country in the world. Broadly, India is divided into six major zones: East India, West India, North India, South India, Northeast India and Central India.

Eastern India includes the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal. The total population of these states is 226,925,195. The Eastern zone covers a total area of 418, 323 Sq.km. Bengali is the dominant language in the state of West Bengal whereas Oriya and Hindi are the principal languages in the states of Orissa and Jharkhand respectively.

The Western region of India covers a total area of 508, 052 Sq.km. Some of the popular states of western India are Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan along with the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Mumbai, the financial capital of India is the capital city of Maharashtra. The states of western India have a prosperous economy with relatively high standard of living.

The six states of North India are: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand , Punjab, Haryana and Delhi (National Capital Territory). The economy of northern India is growing at a fast pace. The most populous cities of North India are New Delhi, Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore and Ludhiana.

Southern India covers states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the union territory of Lakshadweep. Over 48% of South India's population is engaged in agriculture.Bangalore , the capital of Karnataka is known as the 'Silicon Valley of India' because it is India's leading exporter in IT sector.

North east India includes the seven sister states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam , Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Sikkim is also a part of northeast India. There is great ethnic and religious diversity within the seven sister states. The Central zone of India primarily refers to Madhya Pradesh and the newly formed state of Chhattisgarh.

Here is the location map of India:



India is geographically located at 28° 36.8' N and 77° 12.5' E in the northern hemisphere of the globe.

Which continent is India in?

India is located in south Asia and is bordered by other countries like Pakistan in the west, China and Nepal in the north to north eastern part, Bhutan in the north east and Burma in the west.

How to locate India in the maps of the world?

In the world map, the sub-continent of India can be easily located as the peninsula surrounded by the three major water bodies of the Arabian Sea to the west, Indian Ocean to the south and the Bay of Bengal to the east. The world famous tourist destination Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep Islands in Arabian Sea, which are part of the Republic of India, increases the prominence of India's location on the world map.

How big is India?

Stretched over an area of 3, 287, 263 sq. km., the peninsular India is world's 7th largest country. 3214 kms of the mainland between the farthest latitudes is covered by north India to south India, whereas, 2933 kms of the farthest longitudes is covered from eastern to western India. This vast area of 1, 269, 219 sq miles make the country highly prominent on the maps of the world.

Source for the above: http://www.mapsofindia.com/india-loca...

Here is a great photo:



Source;

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/...

Man and Camel
Photograph by Glenn Losack, My Shot

Sand dunes in the Indian desert near the border with Pakistan. Camel wallah and his friend.

Bentley wrote: "India has actually done well with its foreign relations compared to its neighbor Pakistan.

Discussion topic: Historically, the divide between India and Pakistan stems directly from British poli..."

Not to cause offense to anyone, but "doing better than Pakistan" is a pretty low bar.

Non-Alignment Policy

At Independence, India opted for what came to be called Non-alignment. India was a founding member of the Non-aligned Movement.

Effectively, the explanation for this, was that while India shared the political values, belief in human rights, civil liberties, empowerment of its citizens with the west, values that it had imbibed from the British colonial period, India was also very conscious of having been
colonized by Britain, of European's being major colonial powers, of having anti-imperialism as a strong strand in its policy, a sense of solidarity with other countries that were still colonies and support for their struggles for independence particularly across Africa
and Asia. And also admiration for achievements that seemed real at the time that the Soviet Union had accomplished under communist rule. And on top of that, India didn't really identify with either the West or the Soviet Union in the great ideological struggle that was known
as the Cold War. Therefore India said "Well, we are not going to side with them, we'll align instead with the third world countries and be non-aligned."

(Source: The above explanation is directly from the Engaging Inda course - https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...

by Sunil Khilnani (no photo)

by Rajiv Sikri (no photo)

Peter wrote: "Bentley wrote: "India has actually done well with its foreign relations compared to its neighbor Pakistan.

Discussion topic: Historically, the divide between India and Pakistan stems directly f..."

It was a comparison to a country (Pakistan) that had been a part of India prior to independence. And yes it is doing better than Pakistan has been able to achieve. But the reference is to the pre Independent India and what has transpired since then once the country had been divided.

Please add what you would like to the thread regarding foreign relations (India with other countries) - we look forward to reading your posts.

Here is an interesting book on India and China and their relationships:

by Robyn Meredith (no photo)

I think normally one thinks of relations with Pakistan when the term foreign relations of India arises. But India has a huge impact globally because of its extraordinary expertise in information technology.

Sorry, I can't link a book, but as someone who researched and covered the IT industry for a number of years, I can point to some key points of India's foreign relations that goes well beyond tensions with its Islamic neighbor.

It's technical education system is highly competitive and feeds the insatiable global appetite for digital engineers and the like. It leverages that expertise to develop project management and other skills to complement its expertise on the engineering side.

The India-based IT leaders have grown from subcontractors and middling outsourcers in the late '90s to prime contractors at the largest global businesses today. Their global impact is such that IT leaders in the US and West must track trends in the Indian firms and react to them to remain competitive.

Several years ago, a major US corporation was asking: "where are the Indians? We keep hearing about the Indians. Where are they?" A firm I worked with completed three competitive research projects for the client. At the end, employees at the US firm were no longer asking where the Indians were. The US firm was shifting thousands of jobs to India so that it could better align the cost of providing services with competitors from the subcontinent.

At about that time, US and Indian firms were establishing centers around the globe so that they could shift work to take advantage of lower labor prices to protect profit margins on contracts. But the best at it was one of the Indian firms, which could fine tune quarterly revenue figures to within basis points (pennies) of quarterly revenue performance and projections using their sophisticated networks.

The Indian firms mastered a methodology called land and expand. They would land within an account and expand their business. One client had no idea how the Indian competitors got into accounts. Just one day, boom, they were there winning contracts. The Indian competitors got in by winning contracts too small to even be on the radar of major IT firms.

First thing they did was take an inventory of all technology that the client used and then developed strategies to better meet the client's needs. The CEO of Indian firms would visit clients who normally wouldn't get a whiff of a senior US executive. The Indian CEO would take the client's need back to the lab on the Indian company's campus and develop a solution, then sell the solution to an entire industry.

Internationally, the Indian technology firms cycle promising employees into accounts overseas to develop skills, both technical and management.

India's footprint in international relations goes well beyond tensions with Pakistan.

Terrific Martin - please feel free to add books that you think might fit this topic.

I have to agree that we are losing many of our IT jobs to India and that is very sad for the US.

Yes of course - and we are not only discussing India's relationship with Pakistan. That was an opening discussion topic. Thank you for contributing.

We are going to expand discussion to all of its relationships on this thread. Feel free to contribute as you can.

I am quite familiar with the IT industry in India - you only have to look at IBM.

Moving on - when the Cold War ended - things changed in India.

Then India was bereft of any underlying guiding principle. Previously
during the Cold War - it was reluctant to let interests interfere with principles. But now they found themselves with interests but with no underlying principles.

(no image) India & America After the Cold War: Report of the Carnegie Endowment Study Group on U.S.-Indian Relations in a Changing International Environmentby Carnegie Endowment Study Group On US-Ind (no photo)

Source: Engaging India - https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...

The Indian Foreign Service

The Indian Foreign Service (Hindi: भारतीय विदेश सेवा) (abbreviated as IFS) is the administrative diplomatic civil service under Group A[2] and Group B[3] of the Central Civil Services of the executive branch of the Government of India.

IFS was created by the Government of India in October 1946[4] but its roots can be traced back to the British Raj when the Foreign Department was created to conduct business with the "Foreign European Powers".[5] IFS Day is celebrated on October 9 every year since 2011 to commemorate the day the Indian Cabinet created the IFS.[4]

The service is entrusted to conduct diplomacy and manage foreign relations of the India. It is the body of career diplomats and representational officers working under the Ministry of External Affairs of Government of India. Foreign Secretary of India is the administrative head of the Indian Foreign Service.

Officers of the IFS are recruited by the Government of India on the recommendation of the Union Public Service Commission. Fresh recruits to the IFS are trained at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) after a brief foundation course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.

IFS officers represent India at various diplomatic missions around the world. In addition, they serve at the headquarters of the Ministry of External affairs in Delhi and the Prime Minister's Office. They also head the Regional Passport Offices throughout the country and hold positions in the President's Secretariat and several ministries.

Source: - remainder of article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_F...

Official Websites of Foreign Service - India
http://fsi.mea.gov.in
http://mea.gov.in/indian-foreign-serv...

Issues that India is facing: (according to Engaging India course)

The course states: "The Indian Foreign Service, shows a paradox as well. Individually the officers are brilliant.

Collectively the impact is less than the sum of the individuals added together.

In part because the service is astonishingly small. A few years ago, three years ago, the total service was just 600, it's now increased to 700. That is simply not enough to cater to the full range and breadth of India's interests and relations all around the world.

Source: https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...

(no image) Indian Foreign Service ; History and Challence by J.N. Dixit (no photo)

by New Delhi Foreign Service Institute (no photo)

by Ian Scott (no photo)

by J N Dixit (no photo)

by Sugata Bose

India's Foreign Minister - 2014

According to Engaging India, "India has lacked memorable, powerful foreign ministers who can articulate a strong vision for where India stands in the world and use India's hard and software assets and diplomatic skills to pursue that.

So there is no comparable person who stands out, for example, like Zhou Enlai for China, Joschka Fischer for Germany, Gareth Evans for Australia,Robin Cook for the United Kingdom".

Source: Engaging India - https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...

by Harish Kapur (no photo)

This is the current Foreign Minister of India (Sushma Swaraj):



Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister of India, was born on 14 February 1952 in Ambala, Haryana. She has been elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. She is an Advocate by profession and educated at S.D.College, Ambala Cantt (Haryana) and Department of Laws, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Remainder of profile:

http://www.mea.gov.in/eam.htm

This is the current Prime Minister of India:

Narenda D. Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi ([nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː] ( listen), born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001–14. He is currently the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Varanasi constituency..

Modi was a key strategist for the BJP in the successful 1995 and 1998 Gujarat state election campaigns. He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001 and served longer in that position than anyone else to date. Modi was a major campaign figure in the 2009 general election, which the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance lost to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which resulted in an outright majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – the last time that any party had secured an outright majority in the Lok Sabha was in 1984.

Modi is a Hindu Nationalist and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is a controversial figure both within India as well as internationally as his administration has been criticised for the incidents surrounding the 2002 Gujarat riots. Modi has been praised for his economic policies, which are credited with creating an environment for a high rate of economic growth in Gujarat. However, his administration has also been criticised for failing to make a significant positive impact upon the human development of the state.



(Source for remainder of article; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra...)

This is his personal website:

http://www.narendramodi.in/shri-naren...

This is the Prime Minister's official website:

http://pmindia.nic.in/pmmessage.php

Mr. Modi appears to be controversial and appears to be very sensitive to criticism - the response to students' criticism seems to be excessive. Whatever happened to freedom of speech in India since they are supposed to be a democracy. I think he would be very upset in America if he ran for President or any other important office.

7 Charged with Defaming Prime Minister

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/06/...

by Andy Marino

by Sudesh K. Verma (no photo)

by Uday Mahurkar (no photo)

Geography and geopolitics are issues for India

According to Engaging India - they stated:

"In south Asia, India by itself accounts for more than 70% of land area, population and economic weight. If you look at the map, you realize some interesting features.

Not only does India stand out for it's size and weight, India shares borders with all other countries in the region, but no two other countries share a border with each other.

Putting the two together, India is a natural hegemon, it has to be sensitive to it's relations with all other countries, it has varying levels of dispute on issues and borders with several of the countries around it and this gives an incentive to some of the other countries to team up against the regional hegemon. And that creates problems for India."

(Source: https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...)

What is a hegemon?

Hegemony is an indirect form of government, and of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules geopolitically subordinate states by the implied means of power, the threat of force, rather than by direct military force.

by Ranajit Guha

by K.N. Panikkar (no photo)

India's neighbors - Sri Lanka

According to Engaging India:

"One other feature to remember is that South Asia is heavily, heavily characterised by a number of fragile and failing states that have had problems.

Sri Lanka to the south for example is a country which has had several decades of a brutal civil war which was complicated for India because India doesn't want to support secessionists and terrorist movements."

(Source: https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...)

Excellent article on relations between India and Sri Lanka:

http://tribune.com.pk/story/531120/re...

(Source: The Express Tribute (International New York Times)

by Sankaran Krishna (no photo)

by Douglas Allen (no photo)

by Harshan Kumarasingham

by Avtar Singh Bhasin (no photo)

Regarding the Tamils in Sri Lanka:

by Patrick Peebles (no photo)

by Iyengar P. T. Srinivasa (no photo)

History of the War in Sri Lanka: (Video Youtube) - BBC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlN_co...

BBC - Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers

Evolution of the Ethnic War - Part I:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1UnhP...

Evolution of the Ethnic War - Part II:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArqcfD...

Evolution of the Ethnic War - Part III:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvG5mP...

Evolution of the Ethnic War - Part IV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdg8Ag...

Evolution of the Ethnic War - Part V:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgVQtC...

Evolution of the Ethnic War - Part VI:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Eabz...

by K.M. De Silva (no photo)

by Gordon Weiss (no photo)

Sri Lanka marks end of war in victory parade
Government celebrates five years since end of conflict with Tamil Tigers, and bans commemorations for victims.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/20...

(Source: AlJazeera)

India's neighbors - Bangladesh

According to Engaging India:

"Similarly, India's relations with Bangladesh are always shaped by the reality of a large number of Bengali's in India's own West Bengal and there have been problems.

For example, there have been problems with sharing river waters which do not always, are not always compensated for by the fact that India was mid-wife to the birth of Bangladesh in 1971".

(Source: https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...)

by John Keay

by Ritu Menon (no photo)

by Martin Kampchen (no photo)

by Sabeena Gadihoke (no photo)

by Sashanka S. Banerjee (no photo)

by Richard Sisson (no photo)

The birth of Bangladesh (audio) - The Economist

http://www.economist.com/news/books-a...

by Gary J. Bass (no photo)

A different view (according to Kissinger) - but not necessarily the true story - folks can judge for themselves:

by Henry Kissinger

India's neighbors - Nepal

According to Engaging India:

"Nepal has been wracked by several years of very violent Maoist insurgency and is also a playground or battleground between India and China for competing influence".

(Source: https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...)

The Nepal Documentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW5kRB...

by G.L. Rai-Zimmdar (no photo)

by Conor Grennan

by Jeremy Schmidt (no photo)

by John Dwyer (no photo)

by Chuck Rosenthal (no photo)

by Michael Wood

by Barbara J. Scot (no photo)

by Bill Walker (no photo)

by Marine Carrin (no photo)

by Dik Roth (no photo)

by Samrat Upadhyay (no photo) - Note: Novel

by Granta The Magazine of New Writing (no photo)

by John Whelpton (no photo)

by Jonathan Gregson (no photo)

by Stanley Wolpert

Maoists in Nepal will join Parliament

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2VQvM...

Between Two Stones - Nepal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKlqqF...

by Judith Pettigrew (no photo)

by Michael Hutt (no photo)

by Deepak Thapa (no photo)

by Mahendra Lawoti (no photo)

India's neighbors - Pakistan

According to Engaging India:

"For India the most difficult relationship of all is that with Pakistan.

Both countries being nuclear armed, having disputes over rivers, having competing tensions that play out in Afghanistan all contribute to the conflict. But the most serious and intractable conflict has been in relation to Kashmir.

In the north of India, Kashmir is both a territorial conflict between India and Pakistan, but more importantly it's an identity conflict.

India was founded as a secular nation, Kashmir is it's only Muslim majority state. For Kashmir to leave would therefore undermine the very basis on which India was established back in 1947 when the subcontinent was partitioned.

But equally and by the same token, Pakistan was founded as a natural home for all the Muslims of the sub-continent. If a Muslim majority state remains in India that undermines Pakistan's very basic identity.

And so the three competing nationalisms clash in Kashmir:

- Ethno-nationalism of the Kashmiri's
- Secular nationalism of India
- And finally - the religious nationalism of Pakistan.

The India-Pakistan relationship is the pivot, not only of South Asia relations, but has had impact in shaping India's policy's further east."

(Source: https://courses.edx.org/courses/ANUx/...)

by William Dalrymple

by J N Dixit (no photo)

by Yasmin Khan (no photo)

by by Stanley Wolpert

by Ahmed Rashid

by Tehmina Durrani

by Anthony Weller (no photo)

by V.S. Naipaul

by Ayesha Siddiqa (no photo)

by Khushwant Singh Note: Novel

Regarding Kashmir:

by Victoria Schofield
(no photo)

by Victoria Schofield (no photo)

by Navnita Chadha Behera (no photo)

by Ravina Aggarwal (no photo)

by Sumantra Bose (no photo)

by Sumantra Bose (no photo)

by C. Christine Fair (no photo)

by Sumit Ganguly (no photo)

More on Kashmir:

by Laurent Gayer (no photo)

by Ayesha Jalal (no photo)

by Ananya Jahanara Kabir (no photo)

by Iffat Sana Malik (no photo)

by A.G. Noorani

by Luv Puri (no photo)

by Cabeiri deBergh Robinson (no photo)

by Howard B. Schaffer (no photo)

by Monique Skidmore (no photo)

by Christopher Snedden

by Sten Widmalm (no photo)

More - Regarding India and Pakistan Relations:

by Lawrence W. Beer (no photo)

by Veronique Benei (no photo)

by Sumantra Bose (no photo)

by Paul R. Brass (no photo)

by Pervaiz Cheema (no photo)

by Stephen Philip Cohen (no photo)

by Rafiq Dossani (no photo)

by Sumit Ganguly (no photo)

(no image) Protracted Contest: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Twentieth Century by John W. Garver (no photo)

by Zahid Hussain (no photo)

by Owen Bennett Jones (no photo)

by Dalia Dassa Kaye (no photo)

by Daniel Marston (no photo)

by Diane P. Mines (no photo)

by Angel Rabasa (no photo)

by Lloyd I. Rudolph (no photo)

by Suvir Kaul (no photo)

by Stephen Tankel (no photo)

by Stanley Wolpert

Books on India & Pakistan Relations: Partition

by Urvashi Butalia

by Kavita Daiya (no photo)

by Prem Shankar Jha (no photo)

Books on India & Pakistan Relations: The Nuclear Standoff

by Itty Abraham (no photo)

by Šumit Ganguly (no photo)

by Rajesh Basrur (no photo)

by Howard S Brembeck (no photo)

by Stephen Philip Cohen (no photo)

by Gordon Corera (no photo)

by Randall Forsberg (no photo)

by Sumit Ganguly (no photo)

by Sumit Ganguly (no photo)

(no image) Cornerstones of Security: Arms Control Treaties in the Nuclear Era by Thomas Graham Jr. (no photo)

by Devin T. Hagerty (no photo)

by Alexander T.J. Lennon (no photo)

by Dinshaw Mistry (no photo)

by George Perkovich (no photo)

by Strobe Talbott (no photo)

by Ashley J. Tellis (no photo)

by Ashley J. Tellis (no photo)

As if India did not have enough issues to deal with - The Guardian reported - the group seems to be targeting the new prime minister Modi as the reason for this escalation:

Al-Qaida video urges Muslims in Kashmir to wage jihad on India
Footage cites Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq as 'inspiration' for Muslims in disputed Himalayan region to take up arms

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014...

India's new defense chief visits restive Kashmir

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/06/...

(Source: PressTV)

Indian media: Row over Kashmir's special status

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-in...

(Source: BBC)

Modi govt for dignified return of Kashmiri pandits

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/in...

(Source: The Times of India)

Kashmir leader Omar Abdullah defends special status
By Rajesh Joshi
BBC Hindi, Jammu

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-in...

(Source: BBC)

India's neighbors - China

Why you really want India to join the US and China as a superpower

By Miles Kimball June 13, 2014

http://qz.com/221026/why-you-really-w...

(Source: Quartz)

China ready to settle Indian border dispute
BY BIBHUDATTA PRADHAN
BLOOMBERG

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014...

(Source: The Japan Times)

Are China and India drifting closer?
Ashfaqur Rahman

http://www.thedailystar.net/are-china...

(Source: The Daily Star)

Establishing Quid Pro Quo on the India-China Border
Establishing Indian sovereignty in Arunachal Pradesh could solidify Chinese claims in Tibet.
(Regarding the stapled visa controversy)

http://thediplomat.com/2014/06/establ...

(Source: The Diplomat)

What India Gets Wrong About China
India’s misinformed attitudes about the 1962 Sino-Indian war have hampered India-China relations for decades

http://thediplomat.com/2014/06/what-i...

(Source: The Diplomat)

by Robyn Meredith (no photo)

by Prem Shankar Jha (no photo)

China and India: uncertain bedfellows
Ramesh Thakur, The Daily Yomiuri, Friday, May 7, 2010

According to Pakistan's ruling elite, the arch-rival is India. But India's arch-rival is China. The simple distinction is critical for engagement with India. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited India in November and China in December, but not Pakistan. Analysts, too, need to switch their analytical frame from the India-Pakistan- U.S. subcontinental to the India-China-U.S. strategic triangle.

Part of the reason for outsiders' confusion is that while Pakistan makes no secret of its Indophobic attitude, the broad train of interests guiding India's foreign policy requires it to cooperate with China on many international issues and mute public expressions of the bilateral rivalry. India's identification of China as the main object of nuclear tests in 1998 was a rare slip. By contrast, Pakistan makes no secret of India being the object of its nuclear policy.

Because both Beijing and Washington attach the highest importance to their relationship and the consequences of a military clash between them would be catastrophic, such an outcome is highly improbable. A clash between an authoritarian, over-governed China and a rambunctious, under-governed India is less unimaginable.

China's recent muscle flexing has taken a toll on its international image. In a global public opinion survey of 30,000 people in 28 countries released by the BBC on April 18, images of the United States under President Barack Obama had recovered remarkably. Forty-six percent view its influence positively and 34 percent negatively. For China the respective figures are 41 percent and 38 percent. In the 15 countries in which the survey has been done annually since 2005, positive views of China have fallen from 49 percent to 34 percent.

India's view of China turned from a net six-point positive image last year to an eight- point net negative this year. Indians are no less divided than Westerners on whether China's changed behavior is rooted in insecurity or hubris. They fought a short but bitter war in 1962. Both have tried to keep the unresolved border dispute frozen while attempting to build and improve relations on several other fronts.

Setting aside the merits of the border conflict, the 1962 war was caused by a flawed sequence of statements and actions by India. For many years, founding Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his ego frequently massaged by Chinese bemused at his efforts to tutor the consummate Zhou Enlai in the art of diplomacy, dismissed anxiety about ignoring the strategic legacies inherited from the British on how best to defend India's territorial integrity. A major component of this was denial of control of the reverse Himalayan slopes to actual and potential adversaries.

When Nehru did awaken to the threat to India's territorial security by Chinese troops positioned on the Himalayas, his ill-advised public saber-rattling provoked Beijing into calling India's military bluff and inflicting a humiliating defeat. A broken Nehru never recovered and died within two years.

The risk now is China may overplay its hand by gravely underestimating just how much India has changed.

The 3,500-kilometre-long border is not merely disputed by China and India; it is also volatile on both sides, running from India's insurgency-plagued northeast along Nepal and Tibet and on the edges of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, home of the Uygurs. China is hyper-sensitive to "splittism" in relation to Taiwan, Tibet (including the Dalai Lama) and Xinjiang. It is exasperated with the safe haven given by India to the Dalai Lama as well as the thousands of increasingly militant Tibetan exiles based in Dharamsala and elsewhere in India. Beijing is curiously insensitive to the historical fact that Pakistan was created by splitting India.
China was the willing source of Pakistan's nuclearization. Thomas Reed, a former nuclear weapons designer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, secretary of the air force under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and special national security assistant to President Ronald Reagan, has claimed China carried out Pakistan's first nuclear weapon test on May 26, 1990. "We believe that during [Benazir] Bhutto's term in office, China tested Pakistan's first bomb for her in 1990. That's why the Pakistanis were so quick to respond to the Indian nuclear tests in 1998. It only took them two weeks and three days," he said.

A report in The Washington Post on Nov. 13 concluded that the "deliberate act of proliferation" by China began in earnest in 1982 with the transfer of weapons-grade uranium and a blueprint for making a bomb that China had already tested. Thus began the chain of proliferation that extended later to Iran and Libya.

China shared Pakistan's unease at India's rising global clout that intensified with the India-U.S. civil nuclear cooperation deal and India's growing military ties with the United States and Israel. China tried to block a $2.9 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank to India because some of the money was for a flood control project in the northeastern border province of Arunachal Pradesh, part of which China also claims. Beijing protested also about the Indian prime minister and president (as well as the Dalai Lama) visiting those regions. The idea that their president and prime minister should be barred from any part of their own country in turn inflames Indian passions.

India worries China is trying to choke it by strategically adopting a "string of pearls" strategy, including access to and development of ports in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the construction of a highway from China into central Nepal and the extension of China's controversial rail link to Tibet to the border with Nepal.

The two countries are maneuvering for position in Afghanistan for the inevitable time when Westerners pull up and out. The U.S. policy of "clear, hold and build" is more accurately described as invade, get bogged down, and abandon.

When China differentiated visa applications from Indians in Kashmir and other states, India pushed back and threatened to do the same with Chinese from Tibet and demanded a halt to China's construction of a $2 billion power plant in Pakistani Kashmir.
The latest U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review expresses concern that lack of transparency over military development and decision-making processes raise questions about China's future conduct and intentions. On India it notes rapidly improving military capabilities through increased defense acquisitions that include long-range maritime surveillance, maritime interdiction and patrolling, air interdiction and strategic airlift. It acknowledges shared democratic values, an open political system, and commitment to global stability as demonstrated through peacekeeping, counter-piracy, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts. It accordingly welcomes India's rising profile "as a net provider of security in the Indian Ocean and beyond."

The Indian Navy keeps a watchful eye to the east of India's coastline from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is preparing to open a base in Gan at the southern tip of the Maldives chain to the west. The surveillance aircraft, helicopters and, possibly, ships based there will be supplemented by radar installed across the Maldives and linked to India's coastal command.

Meanwhile, bilateral trade has climbed from $3 billion in 2000 to $51 billion last year. The annual growth in trade with China is more than India's total trade with Japan--an astonishing statistic. The two teamed up effectively in the Doha trade talks and then again in the Copenhagen climate change conference. They share a major interest in extinguishing the embers of extremist Islamism in Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are low-intensity combined military exercises, a pale shadow of the land, air and sea exercises that Indian forces engage with U.S., Australian, Singaporean and Japanese militaries.

China has greatly outpaced India in economic growth for the past three decades. But with an aging population, China's demographic profile is similar to the West's, while India's is much younger. Over the next two decades, India will be the center of growth for the working and consuming millions. China and India have much to gain by cooperating and lots to lose by falling prey to tactics of divide and rule by other great powers. The decision to set up a Beijing-New Delhi hotline, their bonhomie in the recent BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) summit meeting in Brasilia, and their caucusing in the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) group at Copenhagen last December--not to mention the new G-20--are all promising developments.

This is a huge issue, of course, and there is no space here to explore all the facets.

On starting poit, though, is clearly Pakistan and, as recent events in Karachi have demonstrated, again, India has a dangerous situation on its doorstep. Sushma Swaraj and Narendra Modi have interesting track records to oversome in establishing workable relations with Pakistan. And that will be at the same time as Modi - once banned from enetering several countries following the sectarian riots in his state - tries to engage the West and reach back into ASEAN and all the rest

That is on top of establishing a better record for good goverance to oversome corruption scams like G2 and Coalgate, all of which have a corruscating effect on international views of India that in turn have an effect on Foreign Direct Investment.

Much more to be said and I hope this thread continues

Brian, we intend to keep this thread open as part of the South Asia threads and related to India and her foreign relations - so I encourage everybody to post and to post often with their thoughts.

Pakistan has become increasingly worrisome. Both Swaraj and Modi as you correctly pointed out are not in a position to really improve things dramatically - at least with Pakistan. It appears he is trying to turn over a new leaf but is it enough and will his neighbors allow him to do that.

India has a lot of cultural problems too including random rape of its women and its lax attitude towards sexual violence. Even their inheritance laws are unequal despite the 2005 Hindu Succession Act of 2005 which should have corrected the imbalance and did not. There is no enforcement of their own law. Additionally, India's slow, overburdened, and under-funded criminal justice system has exacerbated the plight of rape and sexual assault victims according to many journalists and their reporting.

Problems abound both in and outside of India. They need to clean up their own house as well as foster better relationships with their neighbors on their borders and abroad.

India's Neighbors - Bhutan

About Bhutan from article that follows:

"A Bhutanese daily quoted Tobgay as saying, "Bhutan looks forward to strengthening the economic partnership with India and to strengthen the Bhutanese economy."

Bhutan, the size of Switzerland and with a population of 750,000, has only recently emerged from centuries of isolation and has a lot to achieve.

Its first road was built in 1962 and television and the internet arrived in 1999. It is the world's first country to monitor gross national happiness an alternative to gross domestic product, to balance a tentative embrace of modernity with an effort to preserve traditions.

But Bhutan, which made the transition from absolute monarchy to parliamentary democracy in 2008, is struggling with high unemployment and a growing national debt.

The government that took power 2012 says rather than talk about the happiness index, it wants to focus on obstacles to happiness".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks of good neighbours, closer B2B ties during Bhutan visit

Jayanth Jacob , Hindustan Times Thimphu, June 15, 2014

(Source: Hindustan Times - http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-n...)

What is India Offering:

According to the article, the Indian PM called for greater economic ties and a more responsive Indian financial assistance to Bhutan. He suggested doubling the scholarships provided to Bhutanese students in India and offered help in setting up a digital library of two million books and periodicals in the Himalayan nation.

In his meetings with the Bhutanese leadership, PM Modi said his government would not only nurture strong relations with the nation but would also strengthen them, the sources said. On the opening day of his two-day visit to Bhutan, the Indian PM also inaugurated the new supreme court building in Hejo, which was constructed with funding from the Indian government.

Modi assured Bhutan that India is committed to its happiness and progress. He specified areas such as peace, security, development and tourism for focus of pushing bilateral ties.

With the exception of Pakistan, India enjoyed generally close ties with its South Asian neighbours in the first six decades after independence.

But critics say the previous Congress party government began to take relationships for granted, allowing economic giant China - which shares a border with four of India's neighbours - to step into the breach.

The Buddhist nation, wedged between India and China, is the closest India has to an ally in South Asia, a region of bristling rivalry where China is making inroads.

Modi's visit comes just ahead of the 22nd round of bilateral talks between Bhutan and China expected in July or August this year. These talks, which began in 1986, are an effort to resolve the long-pending border dispute between the two nations. Thimphu is keen to use the talks to have a better relationship with Beijing.

The bilateral talks are expected to focus on strengthening ties over Bhutan's hydropower plants, which supply much-needed clean energy to India. Bilateral trade was worth $1.1 billion in 2012, and Tobgay said Bhutan's hydropower industry was "the centrepiece of our bilateral cooperation".

India, a power-deficit nation with severe outages, has helped Bhutan develop three hydropower plants with another three under construction.

PM Modi's Bhutan visit first step to reassert regional sway
Reuters Thimphu, June 15, 2014

What is India worried about and why is Modi making these visits - also why are these visits important?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi began on Sunday his first visit abroad since taking office as he arrived in Bhutan to launch a drive to reassert Indian influence in the region, offering financial and technical help and the lure of a huge market.

The tiny Buddhist nation, wedged in the Himalayas between India and China, is the closest India has to an ally in South Asia, a region of bristling rivalry where China is making inroads.

While India has been struggling recently with policy paralysis and a slowing economy, China has been building ports in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and in its "all-weather ally" Pakistan. China overtook India as the biggest foreign investor in Nepal in the first six months of this year.

Modi's Hindu nationalist party has vowed to end the neglect of neighbours and in an unprecedented gesture, he invited all regional leaders to his inauguration last month.

Remainder of article in The Hindustan Times:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-n...

India's Neighbors - Bhutan

ABOUT BHUTAN:

Many know Bhutan as one of the happiest places on earth, as the last Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom and the only country in the world to use Gross National Happiness as its primary yardstick for progress.

More on Bhutan and India's relationship:

Why is Bhutan important to India?

India, a power-deficit nation with severe outages, has helped Bhutan develop three hydropower plants with another three under construction.

In April the two countries signed a framework agreement on four more joint-venture power projects totalling 2,120 megawatts, and Modi will lay the foundation stone for a new project during the visit.

Amit Bhandari, from the Indian thinktank Gateway House, said electricity to India was Bhutan's single largest export.

"Modi's visit to Bhutan demonstrates the importance India places on furthering this relationship," he said.

There was friction with Bhutan when India cut fuel subsidies before elections last year, although they were restored after Tobgay's victory

The move was seen as a rebuke over Bhutan's moves to engage more closely with China. But commentators say India is more likely to keep its neighbours on side by reaching out to them rather than punishing them.

Modi will also inaugurate a new Supreme Court building partly funded by India, while the king will host a banquet in his honour, according to Bhutan's daily newspaper Kuensel.

India's Modi heads to Bhutan to woo neighbors

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/a...

(Source: Channel NewsAsia)

Bhutan is probably India's closest ally in the region.

Prime Minister Modi To Bhutan, The Land Of The Thunder Dragon

(Source of article to follow - Forbes)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alyssaayr...

An interesting documentary about the happiness quotient of Bhutan

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

The Tiny Nation Transforming the Way the World Thinks About Happiness

Informative Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcoQjo...

More: India's Neighbors - Bhutan

PM Narendra Modi in Bhutan: Countering China? (Youtube Video)

B2B means in Bhutan and Indian terminology - Bharat to Bhuton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2txfQC...

Bhutan and China's relationship does have some issues and border disputes.

a) Bhutan and China hold claims to over 4500 square kilometers of land within Bhutan's Western and Northern territory.

b) Disputed areas between Bhutan and China include: Doklam Plateau, Jakarlung, and Pasamlung.

c) Doklam Plateau adjacent to Chumbi Valley, strategic threat to Siliguri corridor which connects the Northeast to the rest of the country.

As far as India - India shares less than 700 kms of borders with Bhutan.

Isn't it odd that China continually tries to land grab every other countries' lands and makes a big fuss over what is not theirs to begin with. They seem to have unresolved border disputes with everyone.

Bhutan-India relation stood the test of time, says Tshering Tobgay

Tshering Tobgay is Bhutan's Prime Minister.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GrODU...

by Linda Leaming

by Jamie Zeppa

by Chuck Rosenthal (no photo)

by Fiona Roberts (no photo)

by Michael Hutt (no photo)

by Robert W. Bradnock (no photo)

by Devin T. Hagerty (no photo)

by Ahmed Rashid

Bhutan and India Relations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan–I...

Bhutan House:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan_H...

History of Bhutan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_...

India's Relations with Her Neighbours

http://books.google.com/books?id=-VUg...

(no image) India and her neighbors by W. P. Andrew (no photo)

(no image) From Dependency To Interdependence: A Study Of Indo Bhutan Relations by Manorama Kohli (no photo)

by Mohanan Pillai (no photo)

by Jesse Russell (no photo)

(no image) From Dependency To Interdependence: A Study Of Indo Bhutan Relations by Manorama Kohli (no photo)

India's Neighbors - Burma (or Myanmar)


Locations of Both Countries - India is in Green/Burma is in Gold

"Bilateral relations between Burma (officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar or the Union of Burma) and the Republic of India have improved considerably since 1993, overcoming tensions related to drug trafficking, the suppression of democracy and the rule of the military junta in Burma.

Burma is located south of the states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India. The Indo-Burmese border stretches over 1,600 kilometers."

Burma - India Relations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma–In...

(Source: Wikipedia)

Explaining India's silence over Burma - an older BBC article which is quite good (2007 vintage)
By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia...

India Burma Relations:

http://www.arakanrivers.net/?page_id=147

Road to Northeast via Burma:

http://www.arakanrivers.net/?p=695

SPEAKING FREELY
New role for India in Myanmar
By Sonu Trivedi

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeas...

(Source: Asia Times Online)

Why it’s such a big deal that Obama said ‘Myanmar’ rather than Burma (2012 vintage but still interesting)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/w...

(Source: The Washington Post)

Question: Is it Burma or Myanmar?

Answer: Depends on whom you ask. Everyone can agree that it was Burma up until 1989, when the military junta enacted the Adaptation of Expression Law. This decreed English transliteration changes of geographic locations, including Burma becoming Myanmar and the capital Rangoon becoming Yangon.
However, because not all nations recognize the country's current military leadership, not all recognize the name change. The United Nations uses Myanmar, defaulting to the nomenclature wishes of the country's rulers, but the United States and the United Kingdom do not recognize the junta and thus still call the country Burma.

So use of Burma can indicate non-recognition for the military junta, use of Myanmar can indicate a distaste for the colonial powers past who called the country Burma, and interchangeable use of both can indicate no particular preference. Media organizations will often use Burma because their readers or viewers better recognize that and cities such as Rangoon, but not as easily recognize the junta's nomenclature.

(Source: About.com)

The untold love story of Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose story is told in a new film, went from devoted Oxford housewife to champion of Burmese democracy - but not without great personal sacrifice.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world...


Michael Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi and their first son Alexander, in 1973 Photo: ARIS FAMILY COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

And more recently:


Also:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-15...
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prize...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013...
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/15/world/a...
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pa...
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/moth...
http://www.capitalbay.com/mobile/mobi...

Can China and India Coexist in Myanmar?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/giorgio...

(Source: The Huffington Post)

by Thant Myint-U

Crossing the Indo-Burmese Border on Motorcycle

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/multim...

(Source: The Irrawaddy)

Why Was Myanmar’s President Not Invited to Modi’s Swearing-In Ceremony?
What this tells us about India’s policy toward Southeast Asia

http://thediplomat.com/2014/06/why-wa...

(Source: The Diplomat)

The importance of Myanmar to Modi

http://www.myanmar.com/jobs/entry/the...

(Source: Myanmar/Burma News)

An interesting article:

Excuse me…Southasia?
by Rubana Huq
(Source: The Daily Star)

THE sight of Narendra Modi reviewing Vikramaditya battleship, his declaration of Bharat playing the role of neither an aggressor nor a victim, and the visual of the stormy seas said one thing …India is enjoying sending strong messages to the world. Just back from Japan and China, our prime minister has also sent clear messages of aligning within Asia. Countries in Asia will soon be defining the global atmosphere and countries in South Asia might as well be investing in a single word: Southasia.

How will this region ever turn into a one word? Last February, during a Saarc literary festival held in Dhaka, only one participant from Pakistan turned up, who too was shamed by her fellow poets saying that Pakistanis ought not visit Bangladesh, a land where people were being hanged by war crimes tribunal.

Long ago, Saarc launched South Asian Visual Exchange (SAVE), a platform where all the nations in South Asia were looped together into contributing socio-cultural material which would eventually give birth to a regional broadcast. Needless to say, that never worked. Track 1 diplomacy hardly works anyway. A private initiative called TV Southasia (one word here) was launched from India, and that too fell apart owing to lack of finance.

Apart from a socio-cultural platform what other elements can sew this region back to a position of strength? Trade? A free trade area was aimed by Safta way back in 2004 during the 12th Saarc summit, which committed to duties being reduced to 0 by 2016. Ten meetings of the Safta Committee of Experts and 7 ministerial council meetings have been held so far and, excuse me, what exactly has happened so far? Nothing much.

A shipment from India from Mumbai port still has to come via Colombo or Singapore; a truck from Benapole carrying shipment from Ahmedabad is still taking 21 days to reach the destination while a vessel from Shanghai now arrives in 10 days.

Statistical reference to the intra-regional trade is far from new now. They just serve as harsh reminders to our reality. Asean is shoring up its economic integration through the Asean Economic Community (AEC) by 2015 and its intra-regional trade stands at a 22%, while EU's at 55% and South Asia's at 5%.

We South Asians trade only up to $2 billion amongst ourselves, while only 1.3% of South Asia's parts and components are traded within the sub-region, and 56.3% go to East Asia. South Asia accounts for 5.5% of India's exports, while imports from the region have a share of just 0.55%.

Unfortunately, an asymmetry of a substantial extent exists in South Asia as India runs a big trade surplus of $15 billion with Saarc countries, with exports worth $17.5 billion and imports of just $2.5 billion.

In spite of India having granted duty-free-quota-free access to all LDCs in Saarc, mainly Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, that mostly use land route to trade with India, face innumerable non-tariff barriers.

The infrastructure to support cross-border trade is totally inadequate and multiple supply-side constraints range from transport to poor investment within the national borders of South Asian LDCs. All of this leads to the goal of a South Asian Economic Union by 2020 to remain as a dream while Southeast Asia focuses its economic integration efforts through the Asean Economic Community (AEC) for 2015.

Luckily, a few balls have started to roll with regard to a few issues. The Indian Commerce Department has already planned for better connectivity between Chittagong port in Bangladesh to Haldia and Vishakhapatnam ports in India.

India is also reported to be unilaterally considering vehicles from Bangladesh to ply within the country in a bid to facilitate cross-border trade by reducing transaction costs.

A deal in electricity and hydrocarbons between India and Pakistan may also be inked soon along with the good news of both the countries opening banks' branches in each other's territories.

Pakistan, Sri Lanka's second largest trade partner in the region, has already expressed an interest in expanding its free trade agreement (FTA) with the island, which will create growth in bilateral trade that has already exceeded $460 million, according to Sri Lanka's trade ministry.

In terms of connectivity, Nepal and Bhutan revised the bilateral air services agreement (ASA) on May 17, increasing the flights between the two countries by three-fold, with immediate effect.

Development of hydro-electric plants in Bhutan and Nepal, wind power in Sri Lanka, oil exploration in the Maldives are also encouraging news that indicate that there are better value chains existing within this region of Southasia if only stronger partners like India wish to extend both technical and financial support for improved trade in the region with increased investment and support in trade facilitation measures.

Now, what exactly needs to be done if we want to take South Asian integration to the next level? Is the need of a grander vision of South Asia inevitable?

For that, how badly would civil society members like us need to battle with the politics of xenophobic nationalism and reason with how secure or insecure we all are within our own spaces? How can we fight the intra- regional trust deficit?

For this, we need to understand that with the birth of a nation state, we are often forced into our national identities and very often we forget that beyond our own families, language and states, we all have bigger identities as South Asians.

That is exactly why many of us from Bangladesh and Pakistan run Indian restaurants in London. This is the beyond-border-magic in South Asia.

Manmohan Singh dreamt of a similar magic in 2007 when he expressed his desire to have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul --all within a day. Seven years later, a reality check reveals that a similar journey would take him more than 96 hours today. Somewhere, somehow, beyond the tight budget of the 8 foreign ministries, a special Saarc magic wand needs to be waved for this to change.

The writer is Managing Director, Mohammadi Group.

Link: http://www.thedailystar.net/excuse-me...

One interesting thing about India's neighbors is how varied they are in many ways; one way is population density:

Afghanistan 119 per sq. mile
Bangladesh 2500
Bhutan 119
China 368
Maldives 2686
Myanmar 192
Nepal 515
Pakistan 601
Sri Lanka 798

Bangladesh's is the highest of any country that is not a microstate or island nation.

Yes a nice stat to discuss Peter. In the case of Bangladesh - overpopulation has always been an issue. India's neighbors are also quite diverse in many other ways and at least half are "unstable".

More: India's Neighbors - Burma

Full Documentary - BBC Burma My Father and the Forgotten War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq9xe...

Inside Burma - Land of Fear

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside...

Inside the secret city - Burma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGrPJ...

Burma: It Can't Wait / US Campaign for Burma

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

The Burma Times - interesting articles and views:

http://burmatimes.net/tag/indias-modi/

Remembering the Forgotten Theater of World War II

http://cbi-theater.home.comcast.net/~...

As Burma opens, India hopes to turn eastern promise into reality

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/a...

Vintage Army film on Burma (1945) - love these old films
Burmese history movie full (1945)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYmAv...

Another gem - Burma, Buddhism and Neutralism - The Origins of Myanmar. Full Length Documentary - Vintage 1957

Featuring Edward R. Morrow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=932bQ...

Brand Modi Goes Global

http://www.newindianexpress.com/thesu...

(Source: The Sunday Standard - The New Indian Express Group)

More: India's Neighbors - Burma

The importance of Myanmar to Modi (Burma)
By Sonu Trivedi

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_As...

(Source: The Asia Times)

Self-Deception : India's China Policies; Origins, Premises, Lessons by Arun Shourie

Don't forget the book citations, using the "add book/author" link at the top of this comment box.

(no image(Self-Deception : India's China Policies; Origins, Premises, Lessons by Arun Shourie

Here is a map which shows the disputed areas of Kashmir - but having said that the map of India that we depicted showed the geographic areas more clearly than the one substituted. And remember we often post many historical maps which may not be to your liking but we find them useful and helpful in discussing a country and how it has evolved in time. I can understand that you may have some sensitivities but let us take them off line and send a PM in the future and we will work with you or explain our rationale. Also, if you would like to add some positive postings regarding the subject of this thread that would be most helpful and would be a plus. Also, if you would like to post other maps of India that reflect updates or changes - they are also most welcome.

Manish this is a good article and very much appreciated but unfortunately we have no self promotion and I believe this article was written by you. If you have other articles written by others, that is fine.

Bentley wrote: "Manish this is a good article and very much appreciated but unfortunately we have no self promotion and I believe this article was written by you. If you have other articles written by others, tha..."

Not a problem, Bentley. Just thought to share the article so that people could read it. I guess it fitted here as a good read. :)

India and Israel

India and Israel: Modi and Bibi are brothers in arms
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sn...

The India-Israel alliance
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...

INDIA, WHERE ISRAEL'S IMAGE IS POSITIVE
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Indi...

Personally, I am a big fan of Israel. Israel is the only country in the world today which fully supports India on the Kashmir issue. They helped us in 1971 and 1999 wars against Pakistan. Both of these countries have so much in common, both are surrounded by hostile neighbours, both have been victims of Islamic terrorism. Judaism and Hinduism are peaceful religions and are two of the oldest religions on earth. Both religions had been victims of persecution in the middle ages. Around 100 million to 600 million Hindus were killed during the 1000 year Islamic rule in India. Millions of Jews were also killed in the middle east. Jews who fled persecution to India were accepted by the Indians and there has never been any case of antisemitism in the history of India ever, perhaps making it the only country in the world.