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.

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.

The aftermath of Algeria’s revolutionary war for independence coincided with the sexual revolution in France, and in this book Todd Shepard argues that these two movements are inextricably linked.​ Sex, France, and Arab Men is a history of how and why—from the upheavals of French Algeria in 1962 through the 1970s—highly sexualized claims about Arabs were omnipresent in important public French discussions, both those that dealt with sex and those that spoke of Arabs. Shepard explores how the so-called sexual revolution took shape in a France profoundly influenced by the ongoing effects of the Algerian revolution. Shepard’s analysis of both events alongside one another provides a frame that renders visible the ways that the fight for sexual liberation, usually explained as an American and European invention, developed out of the worldwide anticolonial movement of the mid-twentieth century.

Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.

This is a collection of essays, poems, stories and extracts from works that bring to life both the natural beauty and the changing social and political ethos of India's smallest state, Goa.

Is there a predominant reason why India is not Pakistan? Many would likely point to the omnipresence of the military in the polity of the latter. While the interventionist attitude of the army in Pakistan easily explains the democratic shortfall in its history, the mirror opposite in India is rarely studied or credited. Poles Apart is a unique and original investigation of the comparative roles of the military, to study their influences on the growth of democracy in the two nations. The book highlights the divisive outcomes of military coups on Pakistan’s democratic trajectory while also closely analysing potential scenarios in India when the army could have gone astray, but chose to stay apolitical. Disgrace at the hands of China in 1962, the Emergency and Operation Blue Star, among others, make for fascinating case studies of how the army was treated shabbily but still remained politically disinclined. On the other hand, the overarching presence of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, General Yahya Khan, General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf in the Pakistani political space represent a very different set of choices and interventions. A crisp chapter on Bangladesh and its experiments with democracy and martial rule rounds off the deeply researched study.