India and Central Asia: Two Decades of Transition

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. Contributors to this volume - Sanjay Kumar Pandey is Associate Professor, Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi / Ranjana Mishra is Associate Professor and Head, Department of History, M.D. Shah Mahila College, SNDT University, Mumbai / Mushtaq A. Kaw is Professor of Central Asian Studies and Dean, Students' Affairs, University of Kashmir, Srinagar / Nirmala Joshi is Director, India: Central Asia Foundation, New Delhi. She is retired Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi / Swarna Singh is Professor and Chairperson, Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi / . Marlene Laruelle is Research Professor of International Affairs, The Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University, Washington, DC / Sebastien Peyrouse is Senior Research Fellow with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Center affiliated with Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Washington DC / K. Warikoo is Professor of Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi / Ajay Patnaik is Professor, Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi / P.L. Dash is Professor of International Relations and ICCR India Chair, University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Tashkent, Uzbekistan / Laura Yerekesheva is Associate Professor and UNESCO Chair, Institute of Oriental Studies, Almaty, Kazakhstan / Anita Sengupta is a Senior Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata / R.G. Gidadhubli is adjunct Professor at the Centre for Central Eurasian Studies, University of Mumbai / Kuldip Singh is Professor of Political Science and Director, Centre for South Asian Studies, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar / Ali Ahmad Abu Romman is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Jordan, Amman