INDIA'S BACKYARD

Shivshankar Menon’s book is a complexly woven discourse on how India has seen itself, Asia, and the great powers for the past 75 years. But this is no primer: Menon has spent his entire adult life studying China; he was ambassador there, as well as to Israel, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, and was Foreign Secretary and National Security Advisor. This experience, combined with wide reading of extant literature, makes for a cerebral and deeply rigorous treatment.

INDIA AND ASIAN GEOPOLITICS

The Past, Present by Shivshankar Menon

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

T.C.A. Raghavan

The first part of the book, roughly covering the period from decolonisation to globalization, is more historical in its treatment and broadly follows a chronological framework. The second part looks at contemporary Asia and inevitably highlights China and its interface with others, in particular India. The focus is principally about India interacting, influencing, and being influenced by Asia; this a ‘broader’ Asia— both a vast continental landmass and an even larger maritime universe. It is, moreover, geography in which outside powers—Europe, the US, Russia—are key players integral to its geopolitics. In Menon’s telling, this Asia always was connected to wider geographies and is now more connected than ever before. India’s own story is inseparable from this ‘broader Asia’ and is ‘most successful’ only when most connected to it.