Srinath Raghavan

{{short description|Indian historian of contemporary history (born 1977)}} {{Use Indian English|date=December 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}} {{Infobox scholar | honorific_prefix =  | name = Srinath Raghavan | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1977}}  | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | region = | citizenship = | residence = | other_names = | occupation = Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = Infosys Prize | website = | education = University of Madras King's College London | alma_mater = | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = Lawrence Freedman | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline = Military history and Security studies | sub_discipline =  | workplaces =  | doctoral_students =  | notable_students =  | main_interests = | notable_works = ''War and Peace in Modern India'' ''1971: A Global History'' ''India's War: The Making of Modern South Asia'' ''The Most Dangerous Place'' | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }}

'''Srinath Raghavan''' is an Indian historian of contemporary history. He is a professor of history and international relations at Ashoka University,<ref name="Ashoka" /> a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a visiting senior research fellow at the India Institute of King's College London.<ref name="KCL">{{cite web|url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/kii/people/sraghavan.aspx|title=Dr Srinath Raghavan|publisher=King's College London|accessdate=4 December 2017}}</ref> He was previously a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, specialising in contemporary and historical aspects of India's foreign and security policies.<ref name=CPR>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cprindia.org/people/srinath-raghavan |title=Srinath Raghavan |publisher=Centre for Policy Research |access-date=2017-06-27}}</ref>

Raghavan has written and edited several books about India's strategic history, and has been a regular commentator on foreign and strategic affairs. He is a recipient of the K. Subrahmanyam Award for Strategic Studies (2011) and the Infosys Prize for Social Sciences (2015).<ref name=Ashoka>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ashoka.edu.in/faculty#!/srinath-raghavan-72|title=Srinath Raghavan (Faculty Profile) |publisher=Ashoka University |access-date=2017-06-27}}</ref><ref>[http://www.business-standard.com/article/punditry/a-conversation-with-historian-srinath-raghavan-115121000364_1.html A conversation with historian Srinath Raghavan], Business Standard, 10 December 2015.</ref>

== Life == Srinath Raghavan was born in 1977. He studied in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai, graduating with a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Madras in 1997.<ref name="Permanent Black">[http://permanent-black.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/infosys-laureate-2015-srinath-raghavan.html Infosys Laureate 2015: Srinath Raghavan], Permanent Black, 16 November 2015.</ref>

Raghavan joined the Indian Army in 1997 as a commissioned officer in the infantry. He served for six years in the Rajputana Rifles, in Sikkim, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.<ref name=BS/>

He entered academia in 2003, studying at King's College London on an Inlaks scholarship. He worked with Lawrence Freedman, Professor of War Studies at King's College, receiving an MA and PhD in War Studies.<ref name=KCL/> His Ph.D. dissertation was the basis of his first book, ''War and Peace in Modern India''.<ref name="Permanent Black"/>

Afterwards, Raghavan taught as a lecturer in Defence studies at King's College for three years. {{As of|2015}} he worked at the Carnegie India, a policy think tank in New Delhi.<ref name=CPR/><ref name=BS>[https://www.pressreader.com/india/business-standard/20160917/281857233001862 Military intelligence], Business Standard, 17 September 2016.</ref>

Raghavan published three works on the strategic history of India between 2010 and 2016 and was working on further books.<ref name=BS/> In 2015, Raghavan was chosen by India's Ministry of Defence to head a team of historians working on the official history of the Kargil War. The project was to last two years.<ref name=Kargil>[http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/the-fear-of-history-kargil-war-conflict-india-pakistan-china-sri-lanka-2937448/ The fear of history], The Indian Express, 27 July 2016.</ref> He has served as a member of the National Security Advisory Board formed by the Indian Prime Minister.<ref name=KCL/>

== Books ==

=== ''War and Peace in Modern India: A Strategic History of the Nehru Years'' === His first book, it covered the strategic history of Jawaharlal Nehru's premiership and was published as part of ''The Indian Century Series'' edited by scholars Ramachandra Guha and Sunil Khilnani. The editors stated in the book's preface that Raghavan has set a "benchmark" for the historical study of the strategic and foreign policy issues of India. He has covered the strategic crises faced by India in the first fifteen years of its independent existence, using a range of sources and analytical depth.<ref>{{citation |last1=Khilnani |first1=Sunil |last2=Guha |first2=Ramachandra |chapter=Series Editor's Preface |title=War and Peace in Modern India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbtBJb1bsHUC |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-00737-7 |page=x}}</ref>

Scholar Kristina Roepstorff, in a book review, said that the book illuminated the rationale behind the strategic choices made by Nehru in facing major dilemmas during his tenure, and was a good and relevant account of the events that shaped Nehru's strategic thinking and his approach to crisis management. However, she found the book to be short on "theoretical reflection", and noted that the book covered a selection of case studies mainly dealing with India's princely states and crises with neighbours, but omitted general international issues such as the crises dealing with Goa or Congo. She felt that further justification of the selection of cases was necessary to avert selection bias in drawing general conclusions.<ref>{{citation |first=Kristina |last=Roepstorff |chapter=Srinath Raghavan, ''War and Peace in Modern India'' (Book Review) |title=Südasien-Chronik - South Asia Chronicle |volume=2 |year=2012 |pages=441–448 |publisher=Südasien-Seminar der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |isbn=978-3-86004-286-1 |chapter-url=https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/18639/441.pdf?sequence=1}}</ref>

Shashank Joshi called the book a "commanding diplomatic history" of the Nehru years.<ref>{{cite news |last=Joshi |first=Shashank |url=http://www.caravanmagazine.in/perspectives/paradigm-trap |title=A Paradigm Trap |newspaper=The Caravan |date=1 May 2012}}</ref> Odd Arne Westad called it "international history at its very best".<ref>{{citation |last=Raghavan |first=Srinath |title=War and Peace in Modern India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbtBJb1bsHUC |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-00737-7 |at=Back cover}}</ref> Scholar Jivanta Schottli called it "polished historical study",<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schottli |first1=Jivanta |title=''War and Peace in Modern India'' by Srinath Raghavan (Review) |journal=Contemporary South Asia |date=September 2011 |volume=19 |issue=3 | pages=344–345 |doi=10.1080/09584935.2011.594286 |s2cid=218543142 |issn=0958-4935}}</ref> and Rudra Chaudhuri said it should be considered "the single most important text on Indian strategic history".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chaudhuri |first1=Rudra |title=''War and Peace in Modern India: A strategic history of the Nehru years'' by Srinath Raghavan (Review) |journal=Cold War History |date=October 2014 |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=705–706 |doi=10.1080/14682745.2014.955690 |s2cid=154360723 |issn=1468-2745}}</ref> Priya Chacko noted that it is meticulously researched and draws on previously untapped archival sources, such as the private papers of British officials, allowing Raghavan to circumvent the usual limitations of diplomatic history.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chacko |first1=Priya |title=Srinath Raghavan, (Ranikhet: Permanent Black), 2010, pp. 359 |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |date=July 2011 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=305–307 |doi=10.1177/001946461104800211|s2cid=144338163 }}</ref>

Historian Perry Anderson finds that Srinath Raghavan is a firm apologist for India and describes his book as a hymn to Nehru's strategism.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pboDnQEACAAJ|title=The Indian Ideology|author=Perry Anderson|publisher=Verso|year=2013|isbn=978-1-78168-259-3|page=85|quote=Footnote 46: Even such a staunch apologist for New Delhi as Srinath Raghavan, a former Indian Army officer, author of a book that is a prolonged hymn to Nehru's strategic sagacity}}</ref>

=== ''1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh'' === Published in 2013, this book locates the creation of Bangladesh within the wider geopolitical currents of the Cold War, moving beyond the traditional bilateral narrative of an India-Pakistan conflict. Raghavan argues that the breakup of Pakistan was not inevitable, but rather the result of a specific conjuncture of global events, utilizing archival material to demonstrate how the crisis was shaped by the strategic calculations of great powers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ganguly|first=Sumit|date=2016-10-07|title=1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh by Srinath Raghavan (review)|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/632286|journal=Journal of Cold War Studies|language=en|volume=18|issue=3|pages=194–195|issn=1531-3298|doi=10.1162/JCWS_r_00660|s2cid=57559829|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Iqbal|first=Iftekhar|date=2014-12-01|title=Srinath Raghavan. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh.|url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/119/5/1661/44651|journal=The American Historical Review|language=en|volume=119|issue=5|pages=1661–1662|doi=10.1093/ahr/119.5.1661|issn=0002-8762|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In a review for the ''Literary Review'', David Gilmour praised the work for its prodigious research and for dismantling the retrospective determinism often applied to the conflict. He noted that Raghavan successfully argues that the emergence of Bangladesh was a product of "conjuncture and contingency," though he observed that the book concentrates more on the diplomatic dimension than the military one.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-unexpected-country|title=David Gilmour - The Unexpected Country|website=Literary Review|language=en|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> David Carter, writing in ''Asian Affairs'', compared the work to Gary J. Bass's ''The Blood Telegram'', noting that both texts are essential for understanding the complex international matrix of the crisis.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carter|first=David|date=2014-09-02|title=Srinath Raghavan. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh; Gary J. Bass. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide|journal=Asian Affairs|language=en|volume=45|issue=3|pages=519–521|doi=10.1080/03068374.2014.954220|s2cid=161348197|issn=0306-8374}}</ref> Manoj Joshi, in ''The Hindu'', highlighted the book's focus on global politics,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/global-politics-and-the-birth-of-bangladesh/article5440861.ece|title=Global politics and the birth of Bangladesh|last=Joshi|first=Manoj|date=2013-12-09|work=The Hindu|access-date=2020-01-06|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> while other scholars have debated the balance between the book's global focus and the local tragedy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/LYovXLite2v9KBBUjpSzmK/Book-Review--Bangladesh-1971-An-ambiguous-war.html|title=Book Review {{!}} Bangladesh 1971: An ambiguous war?|last=Chandrasekaran|first=Gayatri|date=2013-10-03|website=Livemint|language=en|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

=== ''India's War: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1939–1945'' === In this 2016 work, Raghavan argues that the Second World War was not merely a backdrop to the Indian freedom struggle but a constitutive event that fundamentally shaped modern South Asia. The book details how the war transformed the British Raj into a garrison state and posits that the strategic capabilities developed during the war laid the institutional foundations for independent India's emergence as a major Asian power.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kumar|first=Pavan|date=2018-01-01|title=India's war: the making of modern south Asia 1939–1945|journal=International Affairs|volume=94|issue=1|pages=218–219|doi=10.1093/ia/iix197|issn=0020-5850}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Gady|first=Franz-Stefan|title=Making Modern South Asia: India's Role in World War II|url=https://thediplomat.com/2016/06/making-modern-south-asia-indias-role-in-world-war-ii/|website=thediplomat.com|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

John Keay, reviewing for the ''Literary Review'', called it a "minutely detailed study" of the conflict from the Indian perspective.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/bose-arrows|title=John Keay - Bose & Arrows|website=Literary Review|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> A review in ''The Independent'' noted the book's significance in showing that India was "more than a bastion of the British Empire,"<ref>{{Cite news|title=India's War by Srinath Ragh: More than a bastion of the British Empire|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/indias-war-by-srinath-ragh-more-than-a-bastion-of-the-british-empire-a6949766.html|work=The Independent|date=2016-03-24|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> while ''The Spectator'' praised the work for its detailed account of the making of modern India.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The making of modern India|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/03/the-making-of-modern-india/|work=The Spectator|date=2016-03-26|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> ''The Financial Times'' also reviewed the book, acknowledging its contribution to the history of the period.<ref>{{Cite news|title='India's War', by Srinath Raghavan|url=https://www.ft.com/content/d8a16a82-f1ef-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2|work=www.ft.com|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

=== ''The Most Dangerous Place: A History of the United States in South Asia'' === Published in 2018, this book offers a long-durée history of American involvement in the Indian subcontinent. The title is derived from a comment by President Bill Clinton in 2000 regarding Kashmir. Raghavan challenges the notion that the United States has been a peripheral player in the region, arguing instead that it has been deeply enmeshed in South Asia's political and economic fabric for over two centuries.<ref name="Haidar">{{Cite news|last=Haidar|first=Suhasini|date=2018-06-30|title=The Most Dangerous Place: A History of the United States in South Asia review: Tangled up in knots|url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/the-most-dangerous-place-a-history-of-the-united-states-in-south-asia-review-tangled-up-in-knots/article24288857.ece|work=The Hindu|issn=0971-751X|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Anatomy of Power|url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/books/the-anatomy-of-power|work=Open The Magazine|date=2018-06-20|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

Suhasini Haidar, in ''The Hindu'', described the book as a "tangled" history of the relationship,<ref name="Haidar"/> while Jyoti Malhotra in ''ThePrint'' called it an "absorbing read" that goes beyond its title.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Malhotra|first=Jyoti|date=2018-06-10|title=Never mind the title, 'The Most Dangerous Place' is an absorbing read|url=https://theprint.in/opinion/never-mind-the-title-the-most-dangerous-place-is-an-absorbing-read/67534/|work=ThePrint|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> Other reviews appeared in ''The Indian Express'' and ''The Telegraph'', discussing the book's fresh perspective on the American role in the region.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Terms of Engagement|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/terms-of-engagement-5219390/|work=The Indian Express|date=2018-06-16|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=A new way to look at the US in South Asia|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/books/a-new-way-to-look-at-the-us-in-south-asia/cid/1453485|work=www.telegraphindia.com|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raghavan, Srinath}} Category:Living people Category:21st-century Indian historians Category:21st-century Indian non-fiction writers Category:Indian political writers Category:Indian editors Category:21st-century Indian educators Category:1977 births