Grand Tamasha

Tanvi Madan on the U.S.-India-China “Fateful Triangle”

Episode Summary

How central is China in the U.S.-India relationship?

Episode Notes

Since the end of the Cold War, it has become commonplace to view America’s relationship with India through the prism of China. But a new book by the Brookings Institution scholar Tanvi Madan argues that China’s centrality to U.S.-India relations is hardly a product of the past few decades.

Tanvi’s new book, Fateful Triangle: How China Shaped U.S.-India Relations during the Cold War, offers a historically grounded yet readable guide to the ways in which China has influenced the trajectory of U.S.-India ties--directly and indirectly--since India’s independence in 1947.

This week on the show, Milan and Tanvi discuss the twists and turns in the U.S.-India relationship over the decades, what India’s policy of “non-alignment” really meant, and whether nature and nurture are finally converging to forge a common American and Indian view on China.