Dibyesh Anand

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Archive data: Person was Visiting Fellow at IDSA

Dibyesh Anand is a Reader (Associate Professor) in International Relations and the Director of Research in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster in London. He has degrees from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University (BA History Hons.), University of Hull (MA) and University of Bristol (Phd). He is the author of the monographs Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination, Tibet: A Victim of Geopolitics, and Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear; and has published a number of chapters in edited collections and articles in journals on varied topics including Tibet, China-India border dispute, Hindutva and Islamophobia, identity politics in Tanzania, and nationalism.
Dr. Anand has held visiting positions at the University of California Berkeley, Australian National University, Centre for Bhutan Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Central University of Hyderabad. He has delivered plenary talks, lectures and seminar papers at institutions in USA, Europe, India, Bhutan, China, Russia, Singapore, and Australia. His commentaries and interviews have appeared on newspapers and TV channels of several different countries. His main areas of interests are: Tibet; politics of security and representation; China-India relations; transformations in the Himalayan region; majority-minority relations in China, India and Pakistan; democracy and dissent; and diaspora as an international actor. His website is www.dibyesh.com
At IDSA he is currently completing his monograph on the 1962 war and Sino-Indian border dispute and working on his research project on the significance of Tibet and Tibetans for India.

Visiting Fellow
Email: d[dot]anand[at]wmin[dot]ac[dot]uk
Phone: +91 11 2671 7983

Publication

Remembering 1962 Sino-Indian Border War: Politics of Memory

How does India remember the 1962 border war with China? The article argues that there are two ways in which the war is recalled in the country and both of them are betrayal narratives, one blaming the Chinese alone and the second blaming the Chinese expansionism as well as the naive leadership of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The main focus of the article will be on a critical analysis of the three primary assumptions made by the betrayal narratives: the legitimacy of Indian claims; the unexpected Chinese aggression; and the singular failure of Indian political leadership.