Presented by International Development Research Centre and co-hosted by UBC and the Canada-India Foundation, there has been much talk of a coming Asian century, to be dominated by the economic strength and political assertion of China and India. This critically scrutinizes the claims made on behalf of India, and in particular the belief, held by some Westerners and perhaps by many Indians, that India is a coming superpower. It acknowledges the durability, against the odds, of India’s national unity and of its democracy.
It appreciates the recent surge in economic growths, but, at the same time, it provides a critical analysis of the deep fault-lines within Indian society, politics, economics, and culture, to conclude that the tale of India’s imminent rise to superstardom is highly premature. Ramachandra Guha is a historian and biographer based in Bangalore. Now a full-time writer, he has previously taught at the universities of Yale and Stanford, held the Arné Naess Chair at the University of Oslo, and been the Indo-American Community Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
UBC Library Resources
Guha, R. (Ed.). (2014). Makers of Modern Asia. Harvard University Press. [Link]
Guha, R. (2013). Gandhi Before India. Penguin UK. [Link]
Guha, R. (2003). A corner of a foreign field: the Indian history of a British sport. Pan Macmillan. [Link]
UBC Library Research Guides
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