Wednesday, October 25, 2017


SHYAM  SARAN


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How India Sees The World   From Kautilya to the 21st Century by Shyam Saran ; Published by Juggernaut ; Pages 332 ; Price Rs 599/-

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Shyam Saran was  India’s former foreign secretary and  Special Envoy for Nuclear Affairs and Climate Change selected by Manmohan Singh .He became  Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board. Thus, he had a ringside view on some of the crucial  decisions taken by New Delhi. 

India is heir to a very rich and sophisticated tradition of statecraft and diplomatic practice and this legacy continues. Technological change is driving globalisation and there are new activities such as those relating to cyberspace and outerspace which lie beyond the control of nation states.

Saran’s book is in four sections. Section One --  “Traditions and History” explores the origins of India’s world view and explains how they evolved into the template through which Indians look at the world around them.

The Second Section “Neighbours” focuses on our complex and troubled relationship with three of our neighbours—Pakistan, China and Nepal. According to  Saran Indian sub-continent is a single inter-connected geo-political entity and ecological space with a shared history, strong cultural affinities and dense economic inter-dependencies. The eventual integration of this space transcending national boundaries will remain an enduring objective of India’s foreign policy.

Section Three explores the borderless world that is emerging driven by technological change and globalisation. Energy security and climate change are twin challenges requiring negotiations spanning national, regional and international concerns. The Indo-US nuclear deal is an example of how India enhanced its energy security and expanded its strategic space.

The Epilogue -- the last Section surveys future trends and their impact on India, Three cross-national domains are examined—the maritime, cyber and space worlds. These domains call for new international institutions and government processes.  

 This book of essays are written as part-memoir and part of  the Secretary’s own critical analysis of India’s foreign policy at eventful junctures, based on  his four decades experience in the foreign service. The chapters on the US-India nuclear deal and the Copenhagen climate change negotiations are significant since he recounts  the story of how India negotiated these two pacts.

  The book begins by elaborating on India’s traditional and rich sources of literature on statecraft – from Kautilya’s  Arthashastra to Nitisara of Kamandaki. Saran advises how India can draw inferences from them to navigate today’s complex world . Challenges in the South Asian subcontinent have  to be met  by using  an approach that goes beyond the traditional and narrow confines of sovereignty and national boundaries.

Saran has discussed in-depth the complicated domestic and foreign policy dynamics that influenced  the conclusion of the civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the US in 2008, and the Paris climate change agreement in 2015.

 The claims that the world is hurtling towards Chinese unipolarity are overblown; international borders are becoming irrelevant as climate change and cyber terror bypass them.

 This book also takes the reader behind the closed doors of the most nail-biting negotiations and top-level interactions from Barack Obama at the Copenhagen climate change.

 The  “search for strategic autonomy” marks the running thread that binds India’s diplomatic initiatives. Saran feels our  diplomacy needs greater finesse and skill. He sees the Indian subcontinent as a single geopolitical and ecological space with a shared history and economic interdependencies and its eventual integration, transcending national boundaries, as the ultimate objective of India’s foreign policy.

This explains India’s proposals for South Asia Customs Union, Common Currency and even South Asian Parliament though the hangover of colonialism also makes us see borders as walls to protect us against hostile neighbours. Saran believes that India will emerge as a powerful engine of growth for all its neighbours.

 Saran sees a pattern in  Pakistani behaviour — of each major terrorist attack resulting in the suspension of dialogue, and then, after an interval, the resumption of dialogue, mostly on India’s initiatives. Pakistan therefore has no reason to abandon this low-cost yet “successful strategy” while India has no credible option between extremes of military retaliation and appeasement; and, the latter appears to be India’s destiny.

Successive leaders have been  reluctant in raising issues like Balochistan which ought to have been  part of India’s “counter-constraint” strategy since  the objective is to manage this adversarial relationship and not arrange any grand reconciliation or friendship.

Poor understanding of China, where Saran was posted in two stints, has cost India dearly. The use of Indian soldiers in the British assaults may have led to a negative attitude among the Chinese towards India. The British empire was seen as a threat to Chinese control over Xinjiang and its “suzerainty in Tibet.”Later, the government of independent India was suspected of inheriting similar motives. Right up to 1985, explains Saran, China suggested the border dispute be settled on the “package proposal” put forward by Zhou Enlai in 1960: that China would accept the alignment as defined by the McMahon Line in the east, while India should accept the Chinese alignment in the west.

Saran recalls how China’s “package proposal” disappeared from the mid-1980s when  the then Ambassador to China A.P. Venkateswaran rejected it saying “it would legitimise the territorial gains achieved by China through force of arms. Relations normalised only in the early 1990s under P.V. Narasimha Rao who, according to  Saran best represented the Kautilyan mind. Since then, China has galloped ahead and is least interested in resolving issues with New Delhi. He concludes his China chapter by suggesting that not only is it imperative to build India’s comprehensive national power but also that “India must seek to align with other powerful states to countervail the main adversary .”

 Saran also talks of China’s inroads in Nepal where he was posted during 2002-04 when Indian agencies had facilitated dialogue between a seven-party alliance and Maoists laying the ground for them to join the mainstream and the fall of monarchy. In the face of China’s expanding economic engagement leading to its increased involvement in Nepal’s domestic politics, Saran sees India’s Nepal policy continuing to be “episodic and crisis-driven” and weak.

As his greatest contribution to expanding India’s foreign policy choices, Saran outlines his role in negotiating the Indo-U.S. deal: first as India’s foreign secretary anointed to be the “secure and confidential channel between the U.S.President and our Prime Minister” and later as the Special Envoy for Nuclear Diplomacy. However Saran did succeed in  stopping  India from agreeing to a weak Climate Paris Agreement of 2015 that shrunk our policy choices.

Saran sees India’s historical evolution at the intersection of major caravan and maritime routes providing it a certain innate cosmopolitan outlook.  Today  networking and not hegemony provides the power to influence global trends and such an outlook holds promise.

 Saran comes across as a great champion of multilateralism. It is of course a big question whether his optimism on multilateralism is borne out by historical record. Saran also argues that a multipolar world and a multipolar Asia would be the best bet for India. This has been the Indian establishment’s well-known position for a long time. But it is also true that India’s best years—after the economic liberalisation of 1991—have coincided with the period of US hegemony after the end of Cold War.

 Saran  adds much to our understanding of Indian foreign policy making and the larger worldview shaping Indian diplomats. Written with an engaging flow, the book is an enjoyable read, and provides a perceptive account of the compulsions and motivations driving India’s foreign policy. A must read for those interested in an authentic yet quick reference on contemporary trends in India’s foreign policy.

PPR
22/ 10 / 2017

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