Books
Beyond Diplomacy India’s diplomats have thrown up from among their ranks a number of practitioners of the written word. Some of them have written their way to considerable fame and recognition. Abhay K surveys India’s ‘diplomatic literature’
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hen Shashi Tharoor wrote an article in The Hindu about six years ago titled Diplomats as Littérateurs he could think of only four to five Indian diplomats who were writers. A closer look reveals that there are many more Indian writer-diplomats. The list goes up to a hundred that includes well-known names such as Vikas Swaroop and Pawan Verma and many not so well-known ones such as Ajay M. Gondane and Pratap Singh. V.S. Naipaul writes in his book A Writer’s People: “India is hard and materialist. What it knows best about Indian writers and books are their advances and their prizes. There is little discussion about the substance of a book or its literary quality or the point of view of the writer... the most important judgments of an Indian book continue to be imported.” Have Indian diplomats made substantial contributions to Indian literature or world literature, as Pablo Neruda or Octavio Paz have? Are books written by Indian diplomats known outside diplomatic circles or even within the world diplomatic community? These are some relevant questions which need to be asked before passing judgment on the quality, substance and depth of Indian writer-diplomats. India has produced some noted diplomats since the 1950s who have left behind in their books immense experience and wisdom to guide succeeding generations. The name of J. N. Dixit comes to the fore when one thinks of Indian foreign policy matters. He comes across as a giant among the past and present diplomats. Dixit wrote many books on Indian foreign affairs. His books cover a wide 92 Pravasi Bharatiya September-October 2010
Foreign Secretary of India Nirupama Rao. She is the author of Rain Rising — a poetry book and her poems have been translated into Chinese and Russian
Former President of India K. R. Narayanan. His writings made key contributions towards a better understanding of the country’s diplomatic challenges
Indian Ambassador to Israel Navtej Sarna. He is the author of acclaimed novels like We Were Not Lovers Like That and The Exile
area of Indian foreign policy, its philosophy, origin and dilemma, the Indian Foreign Service, its history and challenges. Kishan Rana’s writings have shed considerable light on the transformations in the sphere of diplomacy and his books Inside Diplomacy and 21st Century Ambassador are widely read across the world. He has been a great advocate of reform of India’s foreign policy architecture and has inspired Danial Markey’s analytical piece on ‘Indian Foreign Policy Software’. K. R. Narayanan, M. K. Rasgotra, C. S. Dasgupta, C. S. Jha, Chinmaya R. Gharekhan, G. Parthasarthy and T. P. Sreenivasan have made significant contributions to the understanding of India’s diplomatic challenges in a fast changing world through their writings.
Amarendra Khatua is a poet-diplomat and has made significant contributions to Oriya literature. He was recently awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavna Award
There are many invisible poet-diplomats who have tried to capture their global experiences in their verses. These include our current Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, and others, such as Aftab Seth, Rikhi Jaipal, Pratap Singh, Dyaneshwar Mulay, Amarendra Khatua (who has been recently awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavna Award for his contributions to Oriya literature), Jordana D. Pavel, Kiran Doshi and Abhay K. (with four books of poetry in English and translated in Russian). The list could also include Gauri Shankar Gupta and J. N. Dixit who are otherwise known for their serious writings on Mongolia and Indian foreign policy, respectively. Among novelist-diplomats besides Vikas Swaroop, who gained world fame