Member of the National Executive of the RSS, eminent thinker and author Dr Ram Madhav presided over the book launch ceremony of “Reimagining India In The Geopolitics of the 21st Century”. The event was graced by the editors of the book, Dr Nanda Kishore and Prashanth Vaidyaraj.
Dr Ram Madhav delivered the keynote address, after the release of the book. He spoke about the various aspects of geopolitics, international affairs and the evolution of India’s foreign policy since independence. He highlighted how India’s image and stature in the world have undergone a complete transformation ever since Narendra Modi took charge as the prime minister in 2014. He said that this book, Reimagining India, is a reflection of Young India, who are confidently marching towards creating an “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” in the “Amritkal” of our nation. He took pride in the fact that a strong and meticulous scholarship, combined with the revitalized self-confidence is seen throughout the book.
Dr Ram Madhav spoke about the nature and complexities of India’s international challenges from the Chinese dominance and Pakistani Nuisance, to the USA’s geopolitical alliance complexities and the nature of war in contemporary times. He in fact reiterated PM Modi’s global message, that “this is not an era of war”, wherein India and the world need to deal with critical military and strategic challenges from a set of well-crafted foreign policy nuances, to protect and safeguard India’s national security and national Interests and also deal with the international community and Indian Diaspora in a poised manner.
He highlighted how all the contemporary disruptions, from technological challenges and threats to financial and economic issues, have been aptly and successfully handled by the Narendra Modi government, which has brought India closer to becoming a world power or a “VishwaGuru”. He stressed that Modi’s strategic autonomy policy has given India a powerful strategic impetus when compared to the strategic blunders India committed under the Nehuruvian non-alignment policy.
Subsequent to Dr Ram Madhav’s address, the editor of the book Dr Nanda Kishor initiated a discussion on the topics in the book. The discussion covered India’s foray into new strategic alliances, its role in multilateral and minilateral groups, leveraging its clout due to a growing economy and its increasing role in South East Asia. The discussion also covered the aspects of handling belligerent and hegemonic neighbours of India.
In the following question and answer session, a diverse pool of questions were posed by the audience which were adeptly answered by Dr Ram Madhav.
About the Book
Reimagining India in the Geopolitics of the 21st is a compilation of articles authored any academicians, IR scholars and researchers on the various aspects of Indian Foreign Policy in the emerging world and India’s ever-growing prominence in the global order. This book is also aimed to encourage young research scholars, professionals and emerging bright minds from the academic fraternity, who form an integral part of the domain of international relations and strategic studies.
This book gives us a demonstrable testimony of intellectual pursuits in international affairs, from an India-centric worldview. It is pivotal for us, to realize that India’s foreign and strategic policy has gained a reinvigorating impetus and a transformative paradigm shift under the PM Modi – Jaishankar duo in the last couple of years. Today, the world looks up to India to take up the heavy mantle of steering global leadership, as it surges ahead to emerge as one of the world’s most influential countries, in this decade. Each and every chapter of this book captures this phenomenon in its essence and provides a critical overview of the role which needs to be played by India, by pointing out the pros and cons of major issues with almost dexterity and adroitness.
There is an underlying belief in this book that, the young generation will indeed decide the future and fate of India, and therefore their voices, and their understanding of India’s foreign policy, play a significant role. It’s significant because, it would create a critical mass of independent thinkers who can shape India’s strategic culture and will inspire the millions of people in India and elsewhere on what they think about India’s foreign policy, as it’s clearly mentioned in the introduction of the book.
This book is divided into 6 sections and 23 articles. The sections of the book are as follows,
- India as a world order
- India and International Agencies
- The China Challenge
- India and West Asia
- India and South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia.
- Defence and Technology.
Each section has a couple of chapters under it.
The authors of the book: Gargi Shanbhag, Poornima B, Priyanka Jaiswal, Abhishek Kadiyala, Viswapramod C, Innocentia Atchaya J, Induja J, Nikhil Gowda, Dnyanashri Kulkarni, Dr Sriparna Pathak, Sonam Bhavani, Isha Tripathi, Rahul Ajnoti, Anmol Kumar, Arun Mathew, Rushita Shetty, Mayank Dalvi, Priyadarshini Baruah, Dr Manoj Panigrahi, Kiran Bhatt, Malavika Madkholkar, Dr Ragotham Sundararajan.
The book has been endorsed by Lt. Gen. Vinod Khandare and Prof. MD Nalapat.
Viswapramod is a PhD Scholar at the Department of International Studies and Political Science, Christ University, Bangalore. He has an MA in International Relations. Views expressed are the author’s own.
Aayush Pal 
Sindhuri Sai