Pax Indica
Pax Indica: India and the World of the Twenty- first Century
By Shashi Tharoor
An author, Member of Parliament, human rights activist and a peace-keeper to name a few, Dr. Shashi Tharoor straddles many worlds. Here’s a peek into the prolific prize-winning author’s new book Pax Indica: India and the world of the Twenty-first Century.
The Book: ‘Indian diplomacy,’ a veteran told Shashi Tharoor many years ago, ‘is like the love-making of an elephant – it is conducted at a very high level, accompanied by much bellowing, and the results are not known for two years.’ In this lively, informative and insightful work, the award-winning author and parliamentarian brilliantly demonstrates how Indian diplomacy has become sprightlier since then and where it needs to focus in the world of the 21st century. Explaining why foreign policy matters to an India focused on its own domestic transformation, Tharoor surveys India’s major international relationships in detail, evokes the country’s soft power and its global responsibilities, analyses the workings of the Ministry of External Affairs, parliament and public opinion on the shaping of policy, and offers his thoughts on a contemporary new ‘grand strategy’ for the nation, arguing that India must move beyond non-alignment to “multi-alignment”. His book offers a clear-eyed vision of an India now ready to assume new global responsibility in the contemporary world. Stimulating, reflective, elegantly-written and passionately engaged, Pax Indica is another substantial achievement from one of the finest Indian authors of our times.
The Author Speaks: ‘Pax Indica: India and the World of the Twenty-first Century is a sort of big ideas book about India’s foreign policy and our place in the world in the 21st century. I think foreign policy is ultimately a tool to ensure the welfare, security and prosperity of the Indian people but in turn we have a responsibility to play a role in the world and that is what the book tries to describe.’_
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