Rising Power and Changing People

The Australian High Commission in India

David Lowe, Eric Meadows

• Publisher: ANU Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781760465285
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Australian & Oceanian History
• Index: History

Beginning in 1943–44, Australia's relationship with India is its oldest continuous formal diplomatic relationship with any Asian country. The early diplomatic exchanges between Australia and India have teased for their suggestions of potential unrealised, for opportunities missed, especially when compared with the very recent excitement about the future of Australia–India relations. How did Australia's representatives and their staff in New Delhi negotiate the many dimensions of Australia–India relations? This book brings together expert analyses of the work of the Australian High Commission, its key people and the challenges they faced in New Delhi.

The important India Economic Strategy to 2035 report handed to the Australian Government in mid-2018 begins with the comment: 'Timing has always been a challenge in Australia's relationship with India.' As the Australian Government works to implement some of the ambitious recommendations in the report, this book adds to our understanding of why timing has been a challenge, and how those at the coalface of the relationship have grappled with it.

Table of contents

• Abbreviations
• List of Figures
• Select Chronology
• Australia–India Relations: The View from New Delhi
• 1. Creating the Diplomatic Relationship
• 2. Two Conferences on Asian Matters in New Delhi
• 3. New Delhi and Canberra in the 1950s
• 4. The Ambassador Extraordinary and the Formidable Public Servant: Sir James Plimsoll and Sir Arthur Tange, 1963–69
• 5. The Buildings and their Locally Engaged Staff
• 6. The Bangladesh Crisis Seen from New Delhi
• 7. Mediating Middle Powers: Shaw, Grant, Curtis and Upton, 1972–83
• 8. Arresting the Drift: The Graham Feakes Era
• 9. Trade and Education: Australia–India, 1998–2008
• 10. Building an Indo-Pacific Security Partnership
• 11. High Commissioners as Scholarly Observers: Crocker on Nehru, and Grant on Indira Gandhi
• 12. Reflections on Australia–India Relations since the 1990s, by Peter Varghese AO, October 2016
• Australian High Commissioners to India
• Select Bibliography
• Notes on Contributors
• Index