Ramachandra Guha: Ten reasons why India will not and must not become a superpower

In an IDRC public lecture, renowned Indian historian and biographer Ramachandra Guha will critically explore India’s future on the world stage. Analyzing the deep fault-lines within Indian society, politics, economics, and culture, he suggests that talk of Indian superstardom is highly premature.

International observers point to a coming Asian century that will be dominated by the economic strength and political power of China and India. Some suggest the success of Indian unity and democracy, and recent surge in economic growth signal India’s imminent emergence as a global superpower.

Award-winning writer, historian and biographer Ramachandra Guha is based in Bangalore. He has taught at Yale and Stanford, held the Arné Naess Chair at the University of Oslo, and was the Indo-American Community Chair Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Nominated in 2008 by Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines as one of the world’s 100 most influential intellectuals, he also received the Padma Bhushan award, India’s third highest civilian honour. The New York Times has referred to him as ‘perhaps the best among India’s non fiction writers’; Time Magazine has called him ‘Indian democracy’s preeminent chronicler’.

Guha’s latest book, India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy, won the Ramnath Goenka Award for the best work of non-fiction published in India. Other notable publications include The Unquiet Woods, a pioneering environmental history, and A Corner of a Foreign Field, a social history of cricket.

Dr Guha’s is part of the Speakers of Renown series, which will be held throughout 2010 to mark IDRC’s 40th anniversary.

The lecture is free but seating is limited, so please register.

French and English simultaneous interpretation will be available.

Information: 613 696-2101

From 08 Apr 2010
Until 08 Apr 2010
IDRC, W. David Hopper Room A, 150 Kent Street, 8th floor, Ottawa, ON
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