India: Science, Politics, Geostrategy cover
Social/Political Commentary

India

byGautam R. Desiraju

Science, Politics, Geostrategy

Thirty years of essays by a research scientist examining India's science policy, geostrategy, and civilisational trajectory with data and candor.

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Language
English
Binding / Format
Paperback
ISBN
9788199391574
Pages
—
Published
—
Category
Social/Political Commentary

Overview

Gautam Desiraju is a research scientist, and he applies a scientist's habits to questions that Indian public discourse usually handles with ideology: the rise of Bharat as a civilisational state, the structural fragmentation of Pakistan, the performance of Indian institutions under political pressure. The essays gathered here span thirty years of thinking and carry the marks of a mind willing to re-examine its own conclusions.

What distinguishes this collection is not the positions — many writers take similar ones — but the method. Desiraju argues from data, revisits assumptions when evidence demands it, and names things that observers closer to power leave unnamed. The book covers science policy, geostrategy, and the relationship between civilisational identity and national capability, treating these not as separate domains but as parts of a single system. For readers who want India's challenges addressed with precision rather than passion, this is a serious starting point.

-:ABOUT THE BOOK:- Some books inform. Some provoke. A few ignite. India: Science, Politics, Geostrategy - A Thirty-Year Thought Journey belongs to the last category. This work by Dr. Gautam Desiraju is not merely a collection of essays; it is the chronicle of a restless and fearless mind searching for patterns in the tumult of our times. - R. A. Mashelkar Former Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research It presents a compelling, data-driven case for the rise of 'Bhārat' as a civilisational state and the inevitable fragmentation of Pakistan. - Sampadananda Mishra Founding Director, Centre for Human Sciences, Rishihood University, Sonipat; Sanskrit scholar This book invites readers to engage with India's challenges and possibilities through the eyes of a scientist unafraid to speak his mind. - Swaroop Rawal Actor; Educationist To speak truth to power is rare enough; to re-examine that very 'truth' when needed is rarer still. In an era of polarised discourse, Gautam Desiraju brings such courage and clarity to questions that many avoid. - Sahana Singh Author; Commentator; Gurukula Champion

Author

Gautam R. Desiraju photo
Gautam R. Desiraju

-:ABOUT THE AUTHOR:- Gautam Desiraju has been in the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India since 2009, and since 2023, he has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor in UPES, Dehradun. Prior to this, he was in the University of Hyderabad for 30 years. He has played a major role in the development and growth of the subject of crystal engineering. He is noted for his role in the concept of weak hydrogen bonding gaining acceptance among chemists and crystallographers. His books on crystal engineering (Elsevier, 1989; World Scientific, 2011) and the weak hydrogen bond in structural chemistry and biology (OUP, 1999) are particularly well known. He is one of the most highly cited Indian scientists with more than 475 research papers, 80000+ citations and an h-index of 105. He has won international awards such as the Alexander von Humboldt Forschungspreis, the TWAS award in Chemistry, and the ISA medal for Science of the University of Bologna. He has guided the Ph.D work of around 35 students and mentored around 70 post-doctoral associates. He is a member of the editorial advisory boards of Chemical Communications and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. He is a former president of the International Union of Crystallography. He is a recipient of an honorary doctorate degree of the Universidad Nacional de Crdoba, Argentina, Rayalaseema University, Kurnool and Gulbarga University, Kalaburagi. He was awarded the Acharya P. C. Ray Medal (2015) of the University of Calcutta for innovation in science and technology. His books Bhārat: India 2.0 and Delimitation and States Reorganization are outside the scientific domain and are concerned with the constitutional history of India and its re-imagination as Bhārat, a civilisational state rather than a nation-state as has been understood till now. Two books published in 2025 are India's Supply Chains in a World at War and Fixing Science in India: A Socio-Economic Prescription. A scientific autobiography for the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (German Chemical Society) in their series Lebenswerke in der Chimie (Lives in Chemistry) will appear in 2026.

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