India's Foreign Relations, 1947-2007

The book examines the lapses in leadership which led to certain crucial problems in foreign policy at the time of India's independence in 1947, unresolved even in the first decade of the 21st century. It argues that Indian leaders, opting for Partition in 1947, perpetuated and institutionalised the very problem they wanted to resolve by Partition — communal antagonism. This has, over the ensuing decades, mutated into international terrorism. A major contention of this book is that before 1991, because of the twin shackles of socialism and non-alignment, India's foreign policy makers could exercise very little independence. On account of the policies of economic liberalisation and globalisation, and the resultant economic surge post-1991, India could gain a greater power status in world affairs, which eluded it before. One of the first studies of its kind, the book traces the subtle changes in foreign policy which set the stage for India's movement towards such a role by means of certain epoch-making deals as the India–United States Civil Nuclear Cooperation Pact.

Jayanta Kumar Ray is Research Coordinator, Institute of Foreign Policy Studies, University of Calcutta, Kolkata. Some of his previous assignments were: Chairman, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Kolkata; National Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi; Centenary Professor of International Relations, and Founder-Director, Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Calcutta, Kolkata; Professor of Behavioural Sciences, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi; Senior Research Associate, Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi; Senior Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla; and Reader, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He was the first Indian scholar to publish research studies on modern Indonesia, Thailand and East Pakistan and to write a book in defence of acquisition of limited nuclear deterrent by India. His writings on civil-military relations, politician-civil servant relations and internal colonialism in ex-colonial countries have attracted a good deal of praise.

His publications include India: In Search of Good Governance (2001); To Chase a Miracle: A Study of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh (1987); Administrators in A Mixed Polity (1981); Public Policy and Global Reality (1977); Portraits of Thai Politics (1972); Democracy and Nationalism on Trial: A Study of East Pakistan (1968); Security in the Missile Age (1967); and Transfer of Power in Indonesia 1942-49 (1967). He has co-authored and edited several books and has published important articles in national and international journals.