India and Central Asia

The Central Asian region in our neighbourhood is in ferment and India's interest in that region is abiding. India has had a long tradition of linkages with Central Asia. It is considered befitting to focus on the area, where countries of the region are shaping up their political future amid many obstacles facing them. The Nehru Centre, therefore initiated a seminar on Central Asia and India in a globalizing world to discuss many of the intricate problems of the region and bring out the proceedings in the volume. The book consists of 14 essays written by eminent scholars in the field and focuses on India-Central Asia relations especially in the past two decades with a historical perspective. To analyse and study the emerging political, security and economic scenario became inevitable and research on the very importance of Central Asian countries became an integral part of academic discourse worldwide. The oil rich countries of the region played the Caspian role, while Uzbekistan, the most populous country of the region, came out prominently to play its weighty regional role in competition with Kazakhstan. The region remained beset with many paradoxes. Contemporary problems like narcotic trafficking, money laundering, splintering effects of the Afghanistan imbroglio, terrorism and others are in plenitude, while solutions to them are limited. A brief and comprehensive Editor's Note provides a background and the significance of India's relations with Central Asia through history and tells us the extant problems of the region that cast a shadow on India's interaction with it.FOREWORD ; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ; EDITOR'S NOTE ; 1. SANJAY KUMAR PANDEY, 'INDIA AND THE IMPORTANCE OF CENTRAL ASIA' ; 2. RANJANA MISHRA, 'SILK ROUTE: TRANSCENDENTAL VALUES IN TIME AND SPACE' ; 3. MUSHTAQ A. KAW, 'KASHMIR AND CENTRAL ASIA: PAST LEGACY AND FUTURE CONTINUUM' ; 4. NIRMALA JOSHI, 'INDIA-CENTRAL ASIA ENERGY COOPERATION' ; 5. SWARAN SINGH, 'CHINA-LED MULTILATERALISM IN CENTRAL ASIA: STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA' ; 6. MARLENE LARUELLE AND SEBASTEIN PEYROUSE, 'SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION: HOPES AMID HURDLES' ; 7. K. WARIKOO, 'INDIA AND CENTRAL ASIA: POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR POWER RIVALRIES IN EURASIA' ; 8. AJAY PATNAIK, 'CENTRAL ASIA AS POTENTIAL THEATRE OF NON-TRADITIONAL CONFLICT' ; 9. P.L. DASH, 'RIVER WATER POLITICS IN CENTRAL ASIA' ; 10. LAURA YEREKESHEVA, 'COMPELLING COMPULSIONS OF ETHNO-CULTURAL IDENTITY AND INTEGRATION PROCESS IN CENTRAL ASIA' ; 11. ANITA SENGUPTA, 'THE PERFORMATIVE STATE: NATION BUILDING AND NATIONALIST DISCOURSE IN CENTRAL ASIA' ; 12. R.G. GIDADHUBLI, 'TAJIKISTAN AND KYRGYZSTAN: ECONOMIC CHALLENGES FACING LESS DEVELOPED STATES IN CENTRAL ASIA' ; 13. KULDIP SINGH, 'KAZAKHSTAN: FACADE OF DEMOCRACY VEILS STABLE DESPOTISM' ; 14. ALI AHMAD ABU ROMMAN, 'THE US INTEREST IN CENTRAL ASIA' ; SOME IMPORTANT WEB LINKS ON CENTRAL ASIA ; CONTRIBUTORS