ABSTRACT

India and post-Cold War Europe1 share at least three characteristics: democracy (India’s electorate of 600 million voters is slightly bigger than the entire population of Europe, including Turkey), diversity (India’s 22 official languages, 28 states and seven union territories make it more varied than Europe) and internal differences (on issues ranging from governance models, market economy, reservations [affirmative action] to minorities, immigration, terrorism and their respective roles in the emerging world order). Yet, despite these common traits and a long common history, Europe has only recently re-discovered India (Acharya et al. 2004; Gnesotto and Grevi 2006; Islam 2008). Had this book been conceived ten or even five years ago, it is not certain that there would have been a chapter on India. However, despite Europe being a popular destination for Indian tourists, India has still to re-discover Europe in any significant way. This begs the question: does Europe matter to India?