The Reverse Swing: Colonialism to Cooperation

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The book showcases New India's (Naya Bharat) march to glory leaving behind the unfortunate and painful memories of the foreign subjugation spanning several centuries.

The Europeans were attracted to do trade with India in the 17th Century not because it was a land of snake charmers as perceived by many in the West, but because India was a fabulous gold mine full of enormous reserves of natural resources and a producer of rare commodities including spices, tea, silk, and precious stones ready to be plundered by the invaders and colonial powers to fill their coffers.

The author has penned down the historical events and the transformations in the Indo-UK relations since independence not with a view to reopen the wounds of colonial rule but to enlighten the present generations, particularly the large Indian Diaspora, with what India had to undergo prior to independence in 1947 and how it has excelled in various sectors to become world's fifth largest economy and earned a pride of place in the comity of nations.

The Indo-UK cooperation in economic, diplomatic, defence production and cultural fields is one of the hallmarks of the book, especially India and Britain concluding a 'fair and balanced' Free Trade agreement (FTA) based on equality, mutual respect and commonality of interests.

Ashok Tandon is a veteran Indian journalist, columnist and a political commentator with more than 50 years' experience in print journalism, media relations and media academics. A Masters in Political Science from Delhi University, Tandon worked in various positions including PTI Bureau Chief in London for more. than seven years and later as Diplomatic Editor of the PTI in New Delhi. He was in-charge of Media Relations in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's PMO (1998-2004) in the rank of Additional Secretary. Later he was Professor and Director, Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism & Communication at its Noida Campus. Tandon was a Member of the Press Council of India and a Member of the Press Registration Appellate Board. During his posting in London Tandon was twice President of the Indian Journalists' Association, Europe (IJA).

Ashok Tandon was conferred the degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by the SGT University, Gurugram, India, in January 2023. At present he is a Member of the Prasar Bharati Board (Broadcasting Corporation of India).

A prominent mural in London's Palace of Westminster shows Sir Thomas Roe, the envoy of English King James I, presenting his credentials in the early 17th century to Mughal Emperor Jahangir, requesting a trade agreement between Britain and the Mughal empire. After four years of negotiation, Sir Thomas returned home without a trade agreement. About 400 years later, and 75 years after the sun set on the British empire in India, India and the United Kingdom are again seeking an elusive free trade agreement, under negotiation for about two years now. With many more complementarities in their economies than in the 17th century, the two countries could conclude a more equal and mutually beneficial agreement.

Meanwhile, the mural itself is the target of critics who believe that the British parliament should not glorify an event that symbolizes a stage in the British colonization of India.

Outside that building, there is the delicious irony of a bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi sharing space on Parliament Square with (among others) two of his principal tormentors, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the South African politician Jan Smuts.

The unique features of the colonial and post-colonial engagement between India and Britain have been captured in reams of tomes and analyses, and continue to generate fiercely polemical debates in the Indian media.

The Reverse Swing-Colonialism to Cooperation' is in your hands at a time when Narendra Modi, the first post- Independence-born Prime Minister is leading India and Rishi Sunak, the first ever Indian-origin Prime Minister is in the saddle in the United Kingdom.

The book comprises a 24-topic series and a concluding chapter on the ups and downs in Indo-British relations in historical perspective, laced with some interesting anecdotes from the pages of the history of their love-hate relationship up to the contemporary positive landscape of constructive engagement between the two successful democracies based on equality, mutual respect and commonality of interests in bilateral relations in political, economic and strategic fields.

Tracing the economic and trade ties between the two countries from the time East India Company established Britain's trading links with India and fought turf wars with Dutch, Portuguese and Persian Gulf as well as Arab competitors in the 17th century, it takes the readers to the period when India pledged its gold with the Bank of England in 1991, due to the fast-depleting foreign exchange reserves and then New Delhi embarking on the path of liberalisation and economic reforms to revive its fortunes and ends with the present era when India has become world's fifth largest economy and the Indian markets established as a profitable global investment destination and an Indo-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on the anvil with similar arrangements being inked with European Union, UAE and Australia.

The book is an analysis of the Indo-UK political ties over the last seven decades throwing light on the circumstances and developments leading to the change of heart in Britain about Indians' capabilities for 'self-rule' and many other facets.

The vibrant Indian democracy today is a shining example of cooperative federalism and has successfully disproved Winston Churchill's much publicised and misconceived prophecy of 'Indians are not fit for self-rule'.

New India has also proved wrong some British and Western prophets of doom who used to describe Indian democracy during the initial decades after independence as 'ramshackle' because of one party and one family ruling the roost.

Thanks to the positive radical policies of social and cultural transformation that altered the country's identity from the British peoples' centuries old image of India as a land of snake charmers, to one of Asia's success story, India has emerged a manufacturing hub in high-tech defence equipment and production of automobiles, an IT superpower, a global pharmacy in allopathic medicines and vaccines as well as an epicentre of traditional medicines, Indian martial arts and international Yoga guru.

With its successful Moon Mission-the Chandrayaan-3- India has joined the elite club of space super powers with the United States, Russia and China.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has demonstrated its technological genius by rolling out the Pragyan rover through the Vikram lander.

India has earned the distinction of being the first country to have landed on the Moon's South Pole.