Crime Today News
The book is a refreshing version of a bilateral relationship that continues to evolve in a way that few would have imagined some years ago
There is never a dull moment in India-United States relations. Still rarely is the compulsion or desire to look how bilateral relations even evolved beyond cliched notions of the Second World War, Cold War, post-Cold War, globalisation and so on. And it takes an eminent historian like Leonard Gordon to look back into history and weave a sequence of events that would tickle the mind of a policy maker in New Delhi and Washington or an ordinary person thinking big about the American dream.
Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips is not just a story of the bilateral encounter from 1492 to the present. It is a well-researched document that gives perspective on history and international relations. For those who are dismayed now that the Trump administration is trying to do away with birthright citizenship or perceived to be placing obstacles to a Green Card and an American Passport, Gordon reminds the reader of the times of the 1920s and 1930s when South Asians were denied citizenship based on something called “colour”. Still, from a handful of immigrants even till about the 1980s, the Indian American community is a force to reckon with today, economically, socially and politically.
Gordon is not just a historian; rather is a person deeply involved in civilizations who connects the dots in areas that few have ventured. In the case of India-US the author quietly navigates India under the British rule and how the Americans came to be involved in a country as missionaries and merchants to start with. Even many Indians would have forgotten the antecedents of the Christian Medical College in Vellore, a first-rate facility and other medical institutions started by an American missionary, Ira Scudder. Well, that is one of the many that Gordon highlights, not to forget the political games the British and Americans were playing out in India.
Depth and width of relationships
But Missions were not a one-way street… they were followed by mantras, migrants and then the influx in the late 1960s and beyond. One of the things that Gordon highlights throughout his masterpiece is that the wisdom, depth and width of India and the US encounter cannot be seen only through the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Martin Luther King but also through folks rarely remembered. “Who, these days, has heard of Kumar Goshal, Ida Scudder, J. Krishnamurthi, Charles Page Perin, John Bissell or even Maharishi Mahesh Yogi?” Gordon thoughtfully asks.
The “account” as the author notes is in four parts: the Age of Empires which would be Colombus to 1919; The Age of Gandhi, 1919 to 1948; New Nations in a Divided World or from 1947 to the present; and the Cultural Explosion of the South Asian Diaspora between 1947 and now. And these four sections are traced through themes of Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips with the fifth “M” being the Mahatma. “Gandhi’s ideas simplified and stripped of some of their cultural content, have enriched American views of freedom, the good society and the means to achieve them,” the author says.
The American interest and interaction with India as Gordon so eloquently paints cannot be mechanically seen in terms of the Thirteen Colonies trying to shake off the British Empire or in American merchants trying for a stake in the East Indies. Seen differently it was not just a simple exchange of missionaries and their respective perceptions and trying to shake off entrenched belief structures in each other’s societies. “It is not possible to understand the US’ complicated relationship with India without looking back at the complicated and nuanced history — that converged in the Boston Tea Party — not only of the two countries but also the development of worldwide connections and empires,” Gordon notes.
In ways more than one Gordon offers a refreshing version of a bilateral relationship that continues to evolve and in the framework of influences and circumstances that few would have imagined some years or decades ago. From literally nobody in Who’s Who at the start of the 20th century, a person of Indian/South Asian heritage, Kamala Harris, almost made it to the White House in the November 2024 elections after being a Vice President for four years under the Biden administration; and currently Indian American Usha Vance enjoys her position as Second Lady of the United States.
Modern makers of bilateral ties
There are different strands of thought that have been pursued in this lengthy but readable work; and singling out one or two of them would do injustice to not only the broader theme of discussion but also to the author who has spent years researching and spending hours with relevant people and in the process also highlighting the professional difficulties in an academic exercise like getting a visa. But the bottom line of this marvellous exercise is not just remembering the modern makers of bilateral ties associated with Silicon Valley or the elites of Washington DC but also remembering the forgotten souls of yesteryears.
For all the heady discussion these days in the US on immigration there is a message that Gordon conveys in his conclusion that perhaps succinctly wraps up any discussion of the ups and downs of a bilateral relationship. “Some want to seal the borders, though they, too, are immigrants or the children of immigrants. It is unlikely that these wall builders will be successful. Frontiers are too porous, the desire to come and work in America too powerful. This nation is, as it has long been, on the move. A good deal of the past has been terrible. Some of it positive. This is likely the course of the future as well,” is a fitting conclusion.
(The reviewer is a senior journalist having been in Washington D.C. for 14 years covering North America and the United States; and in academics for more than a decade as Professor and Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Science and Humanities, SRMIST)
Title: Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips: A History of the Indo-Us Encounter, 1492 to the Present
Author: Leonard Gordon
Publisher: Penguin/India Viking
Pages: 688
Price: ₹784
Amazon Link: Missions, Mantras, Migrants and Microchips: A History of the Indo-Us Encounter, 1492 to the Present
Published on April 15, 2025
📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT & CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC
Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting
