Synopses & Reviews
Diplomacy is conventionally understood as an authentic European invention which was internationalised during colonialism. For Indians, the moment of colonial liberation was a false dawn because the colonised had internalised a European logic and performed European practices. Implicit in such a reading is the enduring centrality of Europe to understanding Indian diplomacy. This Eurocentric discourse renders two possibilities impossible: that diplomacy may have Indian origins and that they offer un-theorised potentialities.
Abandoning this Eurocentric model of diplomacy, Deep Datta-Ray recognises the legitimacy of independent Indian diplomacy and brings new practices He creates a conceptual space for Indian diplomacy to exist, forefronting civilisational analysis and its focus on continuities, but refraining from devaluing transformational change.
Review
"The strength of the book is its in-depth discussion of the complexities of a major Third World foreign ministry outside the 'Western triad of anarchy-modernity-civilization'. . . what sets it apart from most other studies is the way in which the voices of Indian Foreign Service officers interviewed as part of the author's research bring the discussion to life. . . A rich, subtle and instructive study."-- William Maley, Director, Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy School of Regulation, Justice and Diplomacy, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Australian National University
About the Author
Deep K Datta-Ray teaches at Jindal School of International Affairs and formerly worked with Kroll and Hakluyt and Company. Schooled in Calcutta, Honolulu, Singapore and the English countryside, he attended the University of London and Sussex University, from which he obtained his doctorate in International Relations.
Table of Contents
Transliteration
Glossary
Abbreviations
Introduction
Plan
1. Delusive Utopia
Modern diplomacy
Reflexivity and civilization
Civilized genealogy
Conclusions
2. Irrepressible Present
Managing the MEA
The structure-of-structures
The diplomatic present
Status anxiety
How on earth did you get out?
The jugar of negotiating the cosmos
Mobility's aim: progress
Unspectacular suffering
Nothing makes sense in this country
Conclusions
3. Theorizing the Uncontainable
Today's kit: the Mahabharata
Managing the text
Application: the Mahabharata dharma
The practice of diplomacy in the Mahabharata
Conclusions
4. Inverted History
The rationale for diplomacy in the Indo-Mughal Empire
The coming of authentic, modern, European diplomacy
Conclusions
5. Death of diplomacy
Diplomacy-as-battle
Battle practices
The victory of battle-diplomacy
Conclusions
6. Diplomacy Reborn
Gandhi's engagement with dharma
Gandhi's art-of-politics
Nehru: The principled Gandhian
The diplomatic apparatus
Satyagraha in practice: Pakistan and China
Conclusions
7. Violence of Ignorance
Analytical violence
Enclosing the atom: satyagraha
The status of status
The friability of art
Conclusions: In the Shadow of Power Politics
Intellectualizing the Ramarajya
Notes
Bibliography
Index