Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips: A History of the Indo-Us Encounter, 1492 to the Present

The ebook is a refreshing model of a bilateral relationship that continues to evolve in a manner that few would have imagined some years in the past

There may be by no means a boring second in India-United States relations. Nonetheless not often is the compulsion or need to look how bilateral relations even developed past cliched notions of the Second World Struggle, Chilly Struggle, post-Chilly Struggle, globalisation and so on. And it takes an eminent historian like Leonard Gordon to look again into historical past and weave a sequence of occasions that may tickle the thoughts of a coverage maker in New Delhi and Washington or an abnormal particular person considering huge about the American dream.

Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips is not only a narrative of the bilateral encounter from 1492 to the current. It’s a well-researched doc that provides perspective on historical past and worldwide relations. For individuals who are dismayed now that the Trump administration is making an attempt to dispose of birthright citizenship or perceived to be putting obstacles to a Inexperienced Card and an American Passport, Gordon reminds the reader of the instances of the Nineteen Twenties and Nineteen Thirties when South Asians have been denied citizenship based mostly on one thing referred to as “color”. Nonetheless, from a handful of immigrants even until about the Eighties, the Indian American group is a power to reckon with as we speak, economically, socially and politically.

Gordon is not only a historian; moderately is an individual deeply concerned in civilizations who connects the dots in areas that few have ventured. In the case of India-US the writer quietly navigates India below the British rule and how the People got here to be concerned in a rustic as missionaries and retailers to begin with. Even many Indians would have forgotten the antecedents of the Christian Medical School in Vellore, a first-rate facility and different medical establishments began by an American missionary, Ira Scudder. Properly, that’s one of the many who Gordon highlights, not to overlook the political video games the British and People have been enjoying out in India.

Depth and width of relationships

However Missions weren’t a one-way avenue… they have been adopted by mantras, migrants and then the inflow in the late Sixties and past. One of the issues that Gordon highlights all through his masterpiece is that the knowledge, depth and width of India and the US encounter can’t be seen solely via the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Martin Luther King but additionally via of us not often remembered. “Who, as of late, has heard of Kumar Goshal, Ida Scudder, J. Krishnamurthi, Charles Web page Perin, John Bissell and even Maharishi Mahesh Yogi?” Gordon thoughtfully asks.

The “account” as the writer notes is in 4 components: the Age of Empires which might be Colombus to 1919; The Age of Gandhi, 1919 to 1948; New Nations in a Divided World or from 1947 to the current; and the Cultural Explosion of the South Asian Diaspora between 1947 and now. And these 4 sections are traced via themes of Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips with the fifth “M” being the Mahatma. “Gandhi’s concepts simplified and stripped of some of their cultural content material, have enriched American views of freedom, the good society and the means to obtain them,” the writer says.

The American curiosity and interplay with India as Gordon so eloquently paints can’t be mechanically seen in phrases of the 13 Colonies making an attempt to shake off the British Empire or in American retailers making an attempt for a stake in the East Indies. Seen in a different way it was not only a easy trade of missionaries and their respective perceptions and making an attempt to shake off entrenched perception buildings in one another’s societies. “It’s not potential to perceive the US’ sophisticated relationship with India with out trying again at the sophisticated and nuanced historical past — that converged in the Boston Tea Get together — not solely of the two international locations but additionally the improvement of worldwide connections and empires,” Gordon notes.

In methods multiple Gordon presents a refreshing model of a bilateral relationship that continues to evolve and in the framework of influences and circumstances that few would have imagined some years or a long time in the past. From actually no person in Who’s Who at the begin of the twentieth century, an individual of Indian/South Asian heritage, Kamala Harris, virtually made it to the White Home in the November 2024 elections after being a Vice President for 4 years below the Biden administration; and presently Indian American Usha Vance enjoys her place as Second Girl of the United States.

Trendy makers of bilateral ties

There are totally different strands of thought which have been pursued on this prolonged however readable work; and singling out one or two of them would do injustice to not solely the broader theme of dialogue but additionally to the writer who has spent years researching and spending hours with related folks and in the course of additionally highlighting the skilled difficulties in an educational train like getting a visa. However the backside line of this marvellous train is not only remembering the fashionable makers of bilateral ties related to Silicon Valley or the elites of Washington DC but additionally remembering the forgotten souls of yesteryears.

For all the heady dialogue as of late in the US on immigration there’s a message that Gordon conveys in his conclusion that maybe succinctly wraps up any dialogue of the ups and downs of a bilateral relationship. “Some need to seal the borders, although they, too, are immigrants or the youngsters of immigrants. It’s unlikely that these wall builders shall be profitable. Frontiers are too porous, the need to come and work in America too highly effective. This nation is, because it has lengthy been, on the transfer. A whole lot of the previous has been horrible. Some of it optimistic. That is probably the course of the future as nicely,” is a becoming conclusion.

(The reviewer is a senior journalist having been in Washington D.C. for 14 years overlaying North America and the United States; and in lecturers for greater than a decade as Professor and Deputy Dean in the College of Science and Humanities, SRMIST)

Title: Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips: A History of the Indo-Us Encounter, 1492 to the Present

Creator: Leonard Gordon

Writer: Penguin/India Viking

Pages: 688

Value: ₹784

Amazon Hyperlink: Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips: A History of the Indo-Us Encounter, 1492 to the Present

Printed on April 15, 2025