The Making Of Indian Diplomacy

Deep K. Datta-Ray is the only outsider to have embedded in India's Ministry of External Affairs. His book on Indian diplomacy overturns much of the accepted wisdom about it being simply a derivative of European colonial models, in the process shedding new light on the nature of the Indian state. The author argues on the basis of observed practices, and informal interactions and interviews with ministers and diplomats, that the core of Indian diplomatic practice is to be found in the national epic, the Mahabharata, whose influence he traces from pre-Mughal times to the present.