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.

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

Soon after his elevation to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping rapidly consolidated power at home and expanded China's influence in the international system. His desire to achieve the 'China Dream' by the middle of the century has seen him steadily erode the norm of 'collective leadership' at home and has made China's presence across Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific more expansive. He has determinedly set about reshaping the world order for the benefit of his Communist Party. Samir Saran and Akhil Deo offer a retrospective reading of how this came to be-tracing the key policy shifts that have come to define China in the Xi Jinping Era. From the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to the Doklam standoff, they identify pivotal decisions and events that have shaped China's engagement with the world-and how global powers, especially India, have responded to the Middle Kingdom's rise.

Shashi Tharoor delivers an incisive biography of the great secularist who—alongside his spiritual father, Mahatma Gandhi—led the movement for India’s independence from British rule and ushered his newly independent country into the modern world. The man who would one day help topple British rule and become India’s first prime minister started out as a surprisingly unremarkable student. Born into a wealthy, politically influential Indian family in the waning years of the Raj, Jawaharlal Nehru was raised on Western secularism and the humanist ideas of the Enlightenment. Once he met Gandhi in 1916, Nehru threw himself into the nonviolent struggle for India’s independence, a struggle that wasn’t won until 1947. India had found a perfect political complement to her more spiritual advocate, but neither Nehru nor Gandhi could prevent the horrific price for independence: partition. This fascinating biography casts an unflinching eye on Nehru’s heroic efforts for, and stewardship of, independent India and gives us a careful appraisal of his legacy to the world.

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.

In this award-winning novel, Tharoor has masterfully recast the two-thousand-year-old epic, The Mahabharata, with fictional but highly recognizable events and characters from twentieth-century Indian politics. Nothing is sacred in this deliciously irreverent, witty, and deeply intelligent retelling of modern Indian history and the ancient Indian epic The Mahabharata. Alternately outrageous and instructive, hilarious and moving, it is a dazzling tapestry of prose and verse that satirically, but also poignantly, chronicles the struggle for Indian freedom and independence.

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.

Inglorious Empire' tells the real story of the British in India from the arrival of the East India Company to the end of the Raj, revealing how Britain's rise was built upon its plunder of India. In the eighteenth century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation. British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes on and demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial "gift" - from the railways to the rule of law -was designed in Britain's interests alone. He goes on to show how Britain's Industrial Revolution was founded on India's deindustrialisation, and the destruction of its textile industry.

&Lsquo;Well-Balanced, Informative And Highly Readable&Rsquo;&Mdash;Amartya Sen India: From Midnight To The Millennium And Beyond Is An Eloquent Argument For The Importance Of India To The Future Of The Industrialized World. Shashi Tharoor Shows Compellingly That India Stands At The Intersection Of The Most Significant Questions Facing The World Today. If Democracy Leads To Inefficient Political Infighting, Should It Be Sacrificed In The Interest Of Economic Well-Being? Does Religious Fundamentalism Provide A Way For Countries In The Developing World To Assert Their Identity In The Face Of Western Hegemony, Or Is There A Case For Pluralism And Diversity Amid Cultural And Religious Traditions? Does The Entry Of Western Consumer Goods Threaten A Country&Rsquo;S Economic Self-Sufficiency, And Is Protectionism The Only Guarantee Of Independence? The Answers To Such Questions Will Determine What The Nature Of Our World Is In The Twenty-First Century. And Since Indians Account For Almost One-Sixth Of The World&Rsquo;S Population Today, Their Choices Will Resonate Throughout The Globe. Shashi Tharoor Deals With This Vast Theme In A Work Of Remarkable Depth And Startling Originality, Combining Elements Of Political Scholarship, Personal Reflection, Memoir, Fiction, And Polemic, All Illuminated In Vivid And Compelling Prose.