Table Of ContentFACETS OF INDIA’S SECURITY
ESSAYS FOR C. UDAY BHASKAR
Edited by
P.R. Kumaraswamy
FACETS OF INDIA’S SECURITY
This volume brings together established and emerging scholars from aca-
demia and think tanks to refect on important conceptual, strategic and
developmental issues in India’s national security. It provides a comprehen-
sive understanding of national security through a more open approach,
covering both traditional and non-traditional concerns that have a bearing
on the survival and well-being of humanity. It discusses key themes such
as perceptions about China, civil–military relations, gender and military,
nuclear safety, arms trade and cybersecurity, human security, food and
water security, soft power and the media’s role in covering security issues.
As a festschrift for Commodore C. Uday Bhaskar, it highlights and adds to
his scholarly contributions to the national security debate in the country for
the past three decades.
A unique contribution, this volume will be indispensable for students and
researchers of politics and international relations, national security, human
security, geopolitics, non-traditional security, military and strategic studies,
and South Asian studies.
P.R. Kumaraswamy is Professor of contemporary Middle East in Jawaharlal
Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. From 1992 to 1999 he was
a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the
Advancement of Peace, Jerusalem. Since joining JNU in September 1999,
he has been researching, teaching and writing on various aspects of the con-
temporary Middle East. His works include Squaring the Circle: Mahatma
Gandhi and the Jewish National Home (2018), India’s Israel Policy (2010),
and Historical Dictionary of the Arab Israeli Confict (2015, second edi-
tion). In October 2009, he set up the virtual Middle East Institute, New
Delhi, and serves as its honorary director. He is the editor of Contemporary
Review of the Middle East and the series editor of Persian Gulf: India’s
Relations with the Region.
FACETS OF INDIA’S
SECURITY
Essays for C. Uday Bhaskar
Edited by P.R. Kumaraswamy
First published 2022
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CONTENTS
List of tables viii
List of contributors ix
Introduction xv
Conceptual Issues 1
1 The Indian rediscovery of geopolitics 3
C. RAJA MOHAN
2 Why India under-balanced against China in the 1950s:
Evaluating neoclassical realist theory 16
RAJESH RAJAGOPALAN
3 Perils of ideological maximalism 34
ATUL MISHRA
4 A change in the pattern of civil–military relations in India 51
S. KALYANARAMAN
5 Changing trends in gender practices of the Indian military 63
DIPANWITA CHAKRAVORTTY
Hard Security Issues 75
6 The ‘Islamic State’ and threats to India’s national security 77
MD. MUDDASSIR QUAMAR
v
CONTENTS
7 Nuclear security in India: The need for proactivism 89
RAJESWARI PILLAI RAJAGOPALAN
8 Challenges to India’s security: The nuclear dimension 103
MANPREET SETHI
9 Arms trade and national security: An Indian perspective 115
ALVITE SINGH NINGTHOUJAM
10 India’s cybersecurity: Concepts and policies 134
ROHIT SHARMA
Developmental Issues 149
11 Human security discourse in India: Contest, convergence
and practice 151
JAYATI SRIVASTAVA
12 Food security in India 167
SAMEENA HAMEED
13 Tough times ahead: India’s economic security 183
PARNIKA PRALEYA
14 India’s search for sustainable energy security 195
GIRIJESH PANT
15 Disaster management and national security: Impact of
COVID-19 212
SIMA BAIDYA
16 Assuring India’s water security 233
RAJENDRA M. ABHYANKAR
17 Environmental security in India 249
MANJARI SINGH
vi
CONTENTS
18 Soft power and national security: A study of Indian
policy in Afghanistan 262
YATHARTH KACHIAR
19 Media and national security 276
MARTAND JHA
C. Uday Bhaskar: More than a Family Man 291
20 A life together 293
IRA BHASKAR
21 My father: An unusual man 305
SWARA BHASKAR
22 CUB, The Enabler (T.E.) aka the man who loves his
acronyms 311
ISHAN BHASKAR AND BHOOMIKA JOSHI
23 Select Writings of Commodore C. Uday Bhaskar on
National Security 314
COMPILED BY MINAKSHI SARDAR
Index 331
vii
TABLES
9.1 Major defence items delivered by Israel to India
(2001–2018) 121
9.2 Major Russian arms deliveries to India (2000–2018) 125
9.3 Major weapons and systems delivered by the US to
India (2012–2018) 127
10.1 Cybersecurity incidents handled by CERT-In, most
reported security incidents and the number of
trainings organised annually 137
11.1 India’s absolute performance gaps for achieving
Sustainable Development Goals, 2019 159
11.2 India’s rank in human (in)security index 163
1 2.1 Number of suicides in the farm sector (2012–2016) 170
12.2 Retail prices of essential food commodities (in rs per kg) 171
12.3 Adulteration/Misbranding found in the sample tested
in public laboratory 174
17.1 Defning environmental security 252
viii
CONTRIBUTORS
Rajendra M. Abhyankar is Chairman, Kunzru Centre for Defence Studies and
Research, Pune, India. Until December 2019 he was Professor of Practice,
O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University,
Bloomington, United States. During 2005–2008, he was Professor and
Director, Centre for West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
He retired after 37 years in the Indian Foreign Service having served as
Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, and as India’s Ambassador to
the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg, Turkey, Syria, Azerbaijan and High
Commissioner to Cyprus, Deputy High Commissioner in Sri Lanka and
Consul General of India, San Francisco. Since retirement, he has written
three books on Indian foreign policy and edited three others. He has also
written a novel The Crossing (2013) set in Sri Lanka. His latest book is
Syria: The Tragedy of a Pivotal State (forthcoming).
Sima Baidya is Assistant Professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies,
School of International Studies, JNU, India. She is a concurrent faculty
at the Energy Studies Programme at JNU. She is the author of Dissent in
the Land of Arab (2007) and Post-Revolutionary Iran’s State Behaviour
towards India, Pakistan and China (2019). She is former joint secretary
of Indian Social Science Academy and currently managing editor of its
journal. She is a life member of the Indian Social Science Academy and
Council for Political Studies. She writes on Iran, energy, Persian Gulf
politics, non-traditional security, foreign policy, civil society, etc.
Swara Bhaskar is an award-winning Bollywood actress, a social media infu-
encer and an occasional social commentator.
Ira Bhaskar is Professor of Cinema Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics,
JNU, India. She has co-authored Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema
(2009) and her publications have appeared in Melodrama Unbound:
Across History, Media, and National Cultures (2018); Routledge
Handbook of Indian Cinemas (2013); Film Melodrama Revisited (2013);
and Gender Meets Genre in Postwar Cinemas (2012), among others.
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