This book is a great contribution to Peace Research. It places India in the world as a worthy player in international relations from ancient times. The selection of four of the most significant historical peaks over two millennia, the Ashoka era, the Pala era, the Orientalist era and the Gandhi era shows the uniqueness of India's peaceful history, relevant not only for herself, but for the whole of humankind. To the point that in present times, her engagement is destined to contribute to the urgent long-awaited transformation of the United Nations Organization. J.S.
A study of Indian foreign policy under Jawaharlal Nehru, concentrating on the fundamental questions of war and peace. Looks at Nehru's handling of the disputes over the fate of Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir in 1947-48; the refugee crisis in East and West Bengal in 1950; the Kashmir crisis in 1951; and the boundary dispute with China 1949-62.
War and Peace in Contemporary India examines the importance of institutions and the role played by international actors in crucial episodes of India’s strategic history. The contributions trace India’s tryst with war and peace from immediately before the foundation of the contemporary Indian state, to the last military conflict between India and Pakistan in 1999. The focus of the chapters included in this edited volume is as much on India as it is on Pakistan and China, its opponents in war. The chapters offer a fresh take on the creation of India as a regional military power, and her approach to War and Peace in the post-independence period. Importantly, it advances the broader work on Indian strategic history during the Cold War and after, an otherwise under-studied intellectual landscape. The book offers fresh insights based on archival work, as well as a closer conceptual reading of Indian, British and American decision making at times of war and peace in contemporary India. This book will be of great interest to scholars, researchers and students interested in strategic studies, diplomatic and military history, international diplomacy, as well as Indian history and politics. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Strategic Studies.
How can we explain the establishment and longevity of British rule in India without recourse to the clichés of "imperial" versus "nationalist" interpretations? In this new history, Roderick Matthews offers a more nuanced view: one of "oblige and rule", the foundation of common purpose between colonizers and powerful Indians. Peace, Poverty and Betrayal argues that this was not a uniformly systematic approach, but rather a state of being: the British were never clear or consistent in their policies, and among British and Indians alike there were both progressive and conservative attitudes to the struggle over colonization. Matthews' narrative also takes in the East India Company, which was manifestly incompetent as a ruler by 1770, yet after 1820 arguably became the world's first liberal government. Skillfully tying these ambiguities and complexities of British rule in India to the ultimate struggle for independence, Matthews illustrates that the very diversity of British- Indian relations was at the heart of the social changes that would lead to the Freedom Struggle of the twentieth century. Skewering the simplistic binaries that often dominate the debate, Peace, Poverty and Betrayal is a fresh and gracefully written narrative history of British India.
A three-thousand year history of the world that examines the causes of war and the search for peace In three thousand years of history, China has spent at least eleven centuries at war. The Roman Empire was in conflict during at least 50 per cent of its lifetime. Since 1776, the United States has spent over one hundred years at war. The dream of peace has been universal in the history of humanity. So why have we so rarely been able to achieve it? In A Political History of the World, Jonathan Holslag has produced a sweeping history of the world, from the Iron Age to the present, that investigates the causes of conflict between empires, nations and peoples and the attempts at diplomacy and cosmopolitanism. A birds-eye view of three thousand years of history, the book illuminates the forces shaping world politics from Ancient Egypt to the Han Dynasty, the Pax Romana to the rise of Islam, the Peace of Westphalia to the creation of the United Nations. This truly global approach enables Holslag to search for patterns across different eras and regions, and explore larger questions about war, diplomacy, and power. Has trade fostered peace? What are the limits of diplomacy? How does environmental change affect stability? Is war a universal sin of power? At a time when the threat of nuclear war looms again, this is a much-needed history intended for students of international politics, and anyone looking for a background on current events.
India and the Quest for One World revolutionizes the history of human rights, with dramatic impact on some of the most contentious debates of our time, by capturing the exceptional efforts of Mahatma Gandhi and the Nehrus to counter the divisions of the Cold War with an uplifting new vision of justice built on the principle of "unity in diversity."
Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru helped create the myth of a nonviolent ancient India while building a modern independence movement on the principle of nonviolence (ahimsa). But this myth obscures a troubled and complex heritage: a long struggle to reconcile the ethics of nonviolence with the need to use violence to rule. Upinder Singh documents the dynamic tension between violence and nonviolence in ancient Indian political thought and practice over twelve hundred years. Political Violence in Ancient India looks at representations of kingship and political violence in epics, religious texts, political treatises, plays, poems, inscriptions, and art from 600 BCE to 600 CE. As kings controlled their realms, fought battles, and meted out justice, intellectuals debated the boundary between the force required to sustain power and the excess that led to tyranny and oppression. Duty (dharma) and renunciation were important in this discussion, as were punishment, war, forest tribes, and the royal hunt. Singh reveals a range of perspectives that defy rigid religious categorization. Buddhists, Jainas, and even the pacifist Maurya emperor Ashoka recognized that absolute nonviolence was impossible for kings. By 600 CE religious thinkers, political theorists, and poets had justified and aestheticized political violence to a great extent. Nevertheless, questions, doubt, and dissent remained. These debates are as important for understanding political ideas in the ancient world as for thinking about the problem of political violence in our own time.
It Is Hardly Surprising That Prejudice Towards Pakistan Cuts Across Ideological Lines, And The Discourse Of Peace That Different Political Formations Espouse Is Also Uniform Indo-Pak Relations Are Characterized By A Maze Of Feelings, Thoughts And Suspicions That Have Been Used To Justify Chronic Distrust And War By Successive Generations On Both Sides Of The Border. The Author Of The Critically Acclaimed Prejudice And Pride Explores The Foundations Of The Conflict Between India And Pakistan, And Examines The Prospects Of Peace In South Asia With A Refreshing New Perspective. Old Platitudes Are Scrutinized With An Uncompromising Eye And The Complex Layers Of Hostility, Prejudice, Fear And The Reluctance To Reconcile Are Looked At Afresh. Krishna Kumar Touches Upon A Range Of Contexts, Such As The Assassination Of Mahatma Gandhi, The Role Of The Media In Shaping The Path To Peace, And The Violence In Kashmir. The Reader Is Invited To Contemplate Important Questions: Why Was The Father Of Our Nation Killed? Why Has No Textbook Of Indian History Ever Bothered To Deal With That Question? How Do The Legacies Of Gandhi And Jinnah Affect Us To This Day? This Is An Introspective And Thought-Provoking Book From Which Emerges A Persuasive Argument For Peace, While The Rhetoric Of A Romantic Past Is Rejected. It Will Doubtless Offer New Ways Of Looking At This Historic Conflict To Anyone Who Seeks A Deeper, More Constructive Understanding Of It.
