The book is a refreshing version of a bilateral relationship that continues to evolve in a way that few would have imagined some years ago
There is never a boring moment in the relations of the United States and united. Even so, it is rarely the compulsion or desire to look at how bilateral relations evolved beyond the cliché notions of World War II, the Cold War, the Post-Chiar War, globalization, etc. And an eminent historian such as Leonard Gordon is needed to look back in history and weave a sequence of events that would tickle him in the minds of a political responsible in New Delhi and Washington or an ordinary thought about the American dream.
Missions, migrants, migrants and microchips It is not just a bilateral encounter from 1492 to the present. It is a well -investigated document that gives perspective on international history and relations. For those who are discouraged now that the Trump administration is trying to eliminate citizenship from birth rights or above placing obstacles to a green card and an American passport, Gordon reminds the reader of the Times and 1930 and 1930 and 1930 and 1930 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920s 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920. 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920 and 1920. “Color”. Even so, from a handful of immigrants even until the 1980s, the American Indian community is a force to take into account today, economically, social and political.
Gordon is not just a historian; Rather, a person is deeply involved in civilizations that connects the points in the areas that have ventured. In the case of India, the US, the author sails silently in India under British dominance and how Americans came to participate in a country as missionaries and merchants to begin. Even many Indians would have forgotten the background of Christian Medical College in Velore, a first level center and other medical institutions initiated by an American missionary, Ra Scudder. Well, that is one of the many that Gordon stands out, not to forget the political games that the British and the Americans were playing in India.
Depth and width of relationships
But the missions were not a unique sense street … They were followed by mantras, migrants and then the influx in the late 1960s and beyond. One of the things that Gordon stands out through his masterpiece is that the wisdom, depth and width of India and the United States encounter cannot only be seen through Jawaharlal Nehru and Martin Luther Estraugh, although. “Who, these days, has heard of Kumar Goshal, Ida Scudder, J. Krishnamurthi, Charles Page Perin, John Bissell or even Maharishi Mahsh Yogi?” Gordon thinks.
The “account” as the author points out is in four parts: the era of the empires that would be Colombus for 1919; The era of Gandhi, 1919 to 1948; New nations in a divided world or from 1947 to the present; and the cultural explosion of the diaspora of southern Asia between 1947 and now. And these four sections are traced through themes of missions, mantras, migrants and microchips with the fifth “M” the mahatma. “Gandhi’s ideas simplified and stripped of some cultural content have enriched the US opinions of freedom, good society and the average of achieving them,” says the author.
The American interest and interaction with India as Gordon, so eloquently, the paintings cannot be mechanical in terms of the thirteen colonies that try to shake the British empire or in American merchants who try a participation in the Eastern Indies. Seen differently, it was not just a simple exchange of missionaries and their respective perceptions and trying to shake belief structures intertwined in the partners of the other. “It is not possible to understand the complicated relationship of the United States with India without looking back in complicated and nuanced history, which converged in the Boston Tea Party, not only of the two countries but also the development of notes.” “
In a way, more than a Gordon offers a refreshing version of a bilateral relationship that continues to evolve and within the framework of influences and circumstances that few would have imagined some years or decades ago. Of literally no one in whom who is the beginning of the 20th century, a person of the Indian inheritance/of the southern Asia, Kamala Harris, almost arrived at the White House in the November 2024 elections after being vice president of four the Biden administration; And currently American India Usha Vance enjoys her position as the second lady of the United States.
Modern manufacturers or bilateral ties
There are different threads of thought that have pursued in this legal but legible work; And highlighting one or two or they would make an injustice not only for the broadest discussion, but also the author who has spent years investigating and spending hours with relevant people and in the process also highlights professional difficulties. But the conclusion of this wonderful exercise is not only to remember the modern manufacturers of bilateral ties associated with Silicon Valley or the elites of Washington DC, but also remember the forgotten souls of yesteryear.
Despite all the intoxicating discussion these days in the United States on immigration, there is a message that Gordon transmits in its conclusion that perhaps succinctly concludes any discussion about the ups and downs of a bilateral relationship. “Some want to seal the borders, although they are also immigrants or the children of immigrants. It is unlikely that these wall builders are successful.
(The reviewer is a senior journalist who has been in Washington DC for 14 years covering North America and the United States; and in academics for more than a decade as an attached professor and dean at the Faculty of Science and Humanities, Srmist)
Qualification: Missions, mantras, migrants and microchips: a story of the Indo-US meeting, 1492 to the present
Author: Leonard Gordon
Editorial: Penguin/India Viking
Pages: 688
Price: ₹ 784
Amazon link: Missions, mantras, migrants and microchips: a story of the Indo-US meeting, 1492 to the present
Posted on April 15, 2025