Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Simona Vittorini
(SOAS, University of London)
Kate Sullivan (University Of Oxford)
- Location:
- 21D68a
- Start time:
- 26 July, 2014 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
Contemporary readings of India's rise and increasing international influence have been dominated by Anglo-American perspectives. This panel aims to explore vantage points from around the world on a rising India to generate a sense of how India is imagined and understood 'elsewhere'.
Long Abstract:
In recent years India has significantly expanded its political and economic power. This has attracted scholarly attention around the issue of the type of power India will become. These accounts have tended to present two contrasting images of India as a new power. One depicts India as a rising power that shows increasing conformity of interests with the established powers. The other is one of a power that is not ready yet to abandon a traditional Southern vision of Third Worldism.
However, within the English media and academia the analysis of India's rise has been dominated by Anglo-American perspectives. This is problematic because at a time when the global order is heading towards multipolarity and modes of participation within multilateral organisations will need to expand, it will be important to understand the nature and extent of India's influence in the eyes of multiple global stakeholders. Scholars and policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as many Indians themselves, have very little idea about how India is viewed from other global perspectives.
To offer greater diversity in contemporary readings of India's global role, we invite participants to analyse how India is understood and imagined from different country perspectives and through the prism of a number of globally significant issues, process or institutions. Papers should predominantly centre on an official, state-level perspective, and we particularly welcome works which also explore how external perceptions of India match India's own self-image as a global power.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Kate Sullivan (University Of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
To what extent do external, 'non-Western' perceptions of India resonate with India’s emerging global self-image? This paper offers an alternative set of reflections on India’s current place and role in the world that go beyond standard Anglo-American conceptual frameworks and discourses.
Paper long abstract:
With the growth of India's power and status, the world is increasingly thinking about India and its future role in international affairs. While there is a growing literature on India's place in the world, such work is written primarily from an Anglo-American perspective. This paper summarises the findings of an edited volume that seeks to explore 'non-Western' perceptions of the growing international influence of India as a common element of world politics. It draws together the central insights from African, Brazilian, Central European, Chinese, Iranian, Japanese, Mexican, Russian, South African, South Korean, and Syrian perspectives on India's rise. In doing so it suggests what these perspectives can collectively teach us about how India's projected self-image is being received around the world, and what the changing nature of India's role in world politics means for a range of non-Western global stakeholders.
Yang Lu (South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg)
Paper short abstract:
The paper will examine India’s self-perception as a rising power, the image of India in Chinese media, and deal with the perception gap between India’s self-perception and China’s perception of India, which will contribute to a realistic evaluation of India as a global power.
Paper long abstract:
India's rise has attracted global attention. In recent years India has become a very attractive topic in Chinese media in terms of viewership. There has been increasing reports about India, and in the meantime these reports are reflecting as well as shaping China's perception of India. How China perceives the rise of India is an interesting topic which deserves more attention from decision-makers and analysts, since this will have impact on China's policy towards India, and the interaction between the two Asian giants will have global implication. The paper will examine India's self-perception as a rising power, the image of India in Chinese media, and deal with the perception gap between India's self-perception and China's perception of India. This will contribute to a realistic evaluation of India as a global power, which may also give impact on the process of foreign policy formulation.
Simona Vittorini (SOAS, University of London) David Harris (University of Bradford)
Paper short abstract:
India’s long-standing development cooperation ties with Africa have changed since the end of the Cold War. This paper aims to analyse the continued development assertions of contemporary Indian actors in Africa and to consider how African countries are responding to this modified and growing Indian presence
Paper long abstract:
This paper is an investigation of African responses to changing Indian imperatives in Africa against the backdrop of a multipolar world.It will argue that Africa views India's augmented development assistance in the continent in two distinct ways. On the one hand, within the new multipolar constellation of power, India is a player like any other (useful to fuel Africa's propensity for extraversion, to bring greater financial flows, and to strengthen the continent negotiating muscle). On the other hand (and most interestingly), egged on by India's own assertions of development assistance (a half way house between neoliberal directive and historical Nehruvian imperatives), New Delhi is seen as a preferred partner and developing world champion and as providing a unique model for development.
Omar Sharaf (Semitic Studies)
Paper short abstract:
The aim of this chapter is to explore how the conflicting parties in Syria view India’s role in the current crisis in Syria.
Paper long abstract:
Though events in Syria continue to unfold, perceptions of India's role in the crisis are likely to have wider and longer-term implications for India's image and standing in the region. Despite the ongoing, bloody uprising, India has expressed predictable reservations about regime change in Syria, in keeping with its enduring commitment to the principle of non-intervention. Yet in parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, this 'default' Indian stance may cause damage to India's image as the largest democracy in the world and as a supporter of liberal values.
Bhavna Dave (SOAS)
Paper short abstract:
The Cold War ties between India and the Soviet Union produced specific cultural stereotypes about India in Central Asia. The paper explores the gradual dissolution of these stereotypes which has produced a fragmented and shifting image of India in the region.
Paper long abstract:
India and the Soviet Union enjoyed a very close relationship all through the Cold War era in which Central Asia played a vital symbolic role on the basis of its close historical links with India. However, India was unable to utilise its historical ties and Cold War era special relationship for building a new image as a prominent political and strategic player, investor and as a key cultural actor as China and Turkey were able to project their economic and cultural power in the region.
All through the 1990s, India's perception of Central Asia was shaped through the Soviet-era lenses which resulted in the Central Asian states also viewing India through the received Soviet era frame as an exotic and mystical land. Some major shifts in the past decade in India's policy towards the region - particularly the emphasis on expanding economic, technical and commercial ties and offering scholarships and educational opportunities to Central Asians - have mitigated the perception of India as an exotic place and diluted some of the stereotypes. However, the gradual dissolution of stereotypes has also produced a fragmented and shifting image of India which also mirrors the lack of adequate knowledge and the ambiguity with which Indian policymakers perceive Central Asia.