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 this 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 have completely transformed since Narendra Modi took charge as the prime minister in 2014.
He said that this book, Reimagining India, reflects the Young India, who confidently march 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 revitalised 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 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 the Narendra Modi government had handled all the contemporary disruptions, from technological challenges and threats to financial and economic issues, which has brought India closer to becoming a world power or a “VishwaGuru”. He stressed that Modi’s strategic autonomy policy had given India a powerful strategic impetus compared to the strategic blunders India committed under the Nehuruvian non-alignment policy.
After 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 multilateral 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, the audience posed a diverse pool of questions, which Dr Ram Madhav adeptly answered.
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 also aims to encourage young research scholars, professionals and emerging bright minds from the academic fraternity, which form an integral part of international relations and strategic studies.
This book gives us a demonstrable testimony of intellectual pursuits in international affairs from an India-centric worldview. We must realise 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 skill and ability.
There is an underlying belief in this book that the young generation will indeed decide the future and fate of India. Therefore, their voices and 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 mentioned in the introduction of the book
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