This book studies India’s historical, socio-cultural, and trade linkages with Inner Asia. Inner Asia includes the landlocked regions within East Asia and North Asia that are part of today's Western China, Mongolia, the Russian Far East, and Siberia. The volume examines issues of geopolitics, geoeconomics, climate change, regional cooperation, and discusses the importance of the fabled Silk Road for the countries of Inner Asia. It also analyses the impact India has wielded upon the region through its cultural traits and how Buddhism has remained a binding force between the people of the two regions. Lucid and topical, this book will be of useful for scholars and researchers of Asian studies, central Asian studies, area studies, geopolitics, international trade, international relations, defence and strategic studies, diplomacy and foreign policy, and political studies. It will also be of interest to policymakers, bureaucrats, diplomats and think tanks.

Sample Text

India's role in global politics draws increasing attention from the international community. Unprecedented economic growth in the recent past, rising fundamentalism in national politics and the knife-edge of nuclear-fuelled tension with an unstable Islamic government in Pakistan are all bound up in Indian claims to geopolitical ascendance. At the same time, Central Asia has re-emerged as a site of international contestation or a 'new Great Game', with Russia, China and the US vying over security and energy interests in a politically unstable region. In this fresh and penetrating analysis of India's foreign policy, particularly on Central Asia, Emilian Kavalski illuminates India's international ambitions and capabilities, and its complex dynamics with great powers USA, China and Russia. "India and Central Asia" provides a timely and much-needed assessment of the foreign policy of a rising power.

The volume is the collection of the papers contributed in the International Seminar on India and Central Asia: Classical to Contemporary Periods and some papers published in the Quarterly Dialogue of the Astha Bharati, Delhi.

This book looks at how China and India's growing interests in Central Asia disrupt the traditional Russia-U.S. 'Great Game' at the heart of the old continent. In the years to come, both Asian powers are looking to redeploy their rivalry on the Central Asian and Afghan theatres on a geopolitical, but also political and economic level.

Sufism in India and Central Asia is an attempt to put into perspective the relevance of Sufism – the concept and teaching, and to provide a realistic assessment of its role in India and Central Asia. The people of these regions with different ethnic backgrounds, cultures and languages have been intermingling for many centuries, as seen in the cross-current exchanges of religious ideas and belief. The word Sufism, popularly known as mysticism is most likely derived from the Arabic word suf (meaning “wool”), more specifically it means “the person wearing ascetic woollen garments.” Sufism is deeply rooted in Islam and its development began in the late 7th and 8th centuries. The present volume is an attempt to look for answers to questions in relation to Sufism in India and Central Asia and to evaluate its relevance in the contemporary period. A group of distinguished scholars from India and Central Asia have contributed papers to this volume. This volume will be useful to students and researchers working on social and cultural aspects of India and Central Asia.

With renewed American involvement in Afghanistan, Pakistan's growing fragility, and China's rise in power in the post-Soviet space, Central Asia-South Asia relations have become central to understanding the future of the Eurasian continent. Mapping Central Asia identifies the trends, attitudes, and ideas that are key to structuring the Central Asia-South Asia axis in the coming decade. Structured in three parts, the book skillfully guides us through the importance of the historical links between the Indian sub-continent and Central Asia, the regional and global context in which the developing of closer relations between India and Central Asia has presented itself since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the precise domains of Indo-Central Asian cooperation, and studies three conflict zones that frame Indo-Central Asian relations: the Kashmir question; the situation in Afghanistan; and fear of destabilization in Xinjiang. The international line-up of established scholars convincingly demonstrate the fundamental necessity to define the Indian approach on these issues and provide cutting-edge insights on the tools needed to understand the solutions for the decade to come.

Central Asia has been considered as part of India’s strategic neighbourhood; however India’s engagement with Central Asia has been weak due to many contextual reasons. Earlier when the nascent Central Asian nations acquired their independent status after the demise of the Soviet Union India was preoccupied with its own economic problems. Discovery of hydrocarbons and minerals enhanced the strategic importance of Central Asian Republics. The secular polity of these nations also holds tremendous importance for India as the forces of radicalism and extremism especially those emanating from the Af-Pak belt would have adverse impact on the regional security. Major powers are also involved in Central Asia for securing their own interests. This volume looks at the strategic environment in Central Asia, the evolving security situation in Afghanistan that is of concern to Central Asian states as well as India, the non-traditional threats which are becoming more important than the conventional threats, the economic aspects of engagement with Central Asia, prospects of defence and security cooperation and the way forward. The contributors to the volume are well known experts, diplomats and strategic professionals who have looked at every aspect of India-central Asia engagement and have suggested a way forward.