Klaus Voll, Doreen Beierlein (Eds.): Rising India – Europe’s Partner?

More than 100 European and Indian authors have contributed to the wide range of topics - as indicated in the subtitle and table of contents - with their expertise to this civil society initiative for intensified Indo-European dialogues. India - an emerging global player and a potential world power of the 21st century – is shown in its manifold dimensions, not one-sided as a temporary media hype but with all its major realistic characteristics. European countries cannot understand and shoulder India alone, it has to be a joint European effort. Many experts, some of them in high positions, present practical solutions, which require new approaches.

Germans and Europeans are often not aware about their rich – mostly not coordinated - knowledge and practical forms of cooperation with regard to India. Intercultural competences in both directions are a requirement for the future, as several critical articles demonstrate.

This extensive reader on India and its relations with Europe is addressed to the interested public but also to policy-makers, diplomats, experts in politics, sciences and the media, political and educational multipliers, NGO-representatives and students both in Europe and in India as a comprehensive foundation for an improved future cooperation with increasing political, economic and intercultural exchanges, which should be beneficial for both Europe and India.
The aim of this book is to strengthen further dialogues between Europeans and Indians. Europeans have to take note of India’s growing political, economic and cultural importance as well as its international and geo-political involvements. But one should not forget the tensions in the region of South Asia, the examples of cross-border terrorism and low-intensity warfare directed against the integrity of the Indian Union. At the same time disturbing internal causes like poverty, hunger and malnutrition lead to social and armed unrest. Patterns of the largest democracy in the world, irrespective of certain deficits, the developments of one of the fastest growing economies worldwide, social, human rights and religious minorities issues, the media, cultural dimensions, intercultural experiences and competences are amply covered in their various aspects, particularly also with regard to an increasing European involvement.

Historians, Political Scientists, Economists, Business Administrators, Sociologists, Ethnologists, Cultural Anthropologists, Environmental Scientists, Indologists, Islam-, Media-, Literary-, International Relations- and Global Studies Scholars, Psychologists, Lawyers, acting and former Diplomats - some up to the highest levels as Ambassadors and Foreign Secretaries - Defense Analysts, Civil Servants, Journalists, Professors and Academicians from Universities, Think Tanks and Research Institutes, Religious Leaders and Scholars, active Politicians, Political Advisors, Social and Human Rights Activists, Film Makers, Dancers, Photographers and also young Students, including quite a substantial number of women in most of the topical areas, contributed by and large with essays especially written for this book. Many are opinion leaders in their field of expertise.

In future, it would be also worthwhile to focus in a more systematic manner increasingly on India’s knowledge about Europe with the ultimate aim to further the intellectual exchange and interactions – also result- and interest-oriented - between representatives of the civil societies of two of the important civilizations in this world.

“Rising India – Europe’s Partner?” could have been easily split into at least two if not even three volumes, but as editors we tried to project a fairly holistic picture of India and Europe-India relations in one book. Especially the first chapter, a veritable Who’s Who in Foreign- and Security Studies, particularly on the Indian side, demonstrates a truly equal and intellectual partnership.
This part, describing India’s relations with major powers in the world, internal challenges to a successful international role, external visions of India and chances for conflict solutions, also in cooperation with Europe, conveys the conviction of the editors that Europe as a whole as well as its member states must acquire a holistic and concerted picture of India, even if they interact with it only in limited areas.
The internal dimensions of the largest and perhaps most complex democracy of the world are highlighted in the context of its on-going “silent revolution”, its “second democratic upsurge” and a thorough analysis of the 2004 general elections with an overview about the party system, internal structures of its functioning, challenges by social-revolutionary and armed groups and the current domestic political trends.

India’s economic growth rates, only second to China, are finally drawing the attention of the world. Balanced and well-informed articles – also in the wider social context of an existing bourgeoisie and numerically expanding middle classes - provide a comprehensive understanding of “Asia’s second giant” and invite intensified future dialogues in this important area.

The complicated Indian caste system and its underlying economic rationale, the right to food in view of wide-spread hunger and malnutrition, human rights violations, the situation of Indian Muslims, journalism and mass media, alternative films, dance as an intercultural medium etc. are supplemented by deliberations about various intercultural interactions and many practical examples of Indo-European civil society cooperation, followed by perspectives for the future Europe-India relations in a globalising world.

About the Editors:

Dr. Klaus Voll, Head, India - Europe - Consultancy (IN - EU - CO), is a Lecturer in Indian Politics at the Freie Universität in Berlin. The former diplomat, representative of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, journalist and honorary consultant of the UN-World Food Programme has lived in Delhi since 1983.

Doreen Beierlein, a psychologist, University of Potsdam, combines knowledge of methods of social-scientific and psychological research and applied work with personal interests in cultures and social processes, especially in Southern Africa and India.

The authors