Afghans in Need: Positing India’s Continued Engagement With Afghanistan

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It is hard to think of a country other than Afghanistan where the interests of so many and such disparate actors—state and non-state, regional and global—have come into play and for decades together. The complete withdrawal of the US-led coalition and the dramatic return of the Taliban to power three years ago, marked yet another major shift in Afghanistan’s political–ideological landscape. As a policy, India has remained committed to its people-centric development approach towards Afghanistan. It also has channels open with Islamist Kabul on issues of concern. However, the challenge lies in building trust between the two sides to take the engagement forward. Assuming that an independent Taliban is preferable to one in exile and under Pakistani tutelage, the monograph posits that if the engagement has to be taken forward, then developments in Afghanistan will have to be viewed in their overall social-political context, which has been upended and heaved multiple times over the past five decades, to better deal with its absurdities, contradictions, and layered complexities.

About The Author

Vishal Chandra studies Afghanistan at Manohar Parrikar IDSA, New Delhi. He is the author of The Unfinished War in Afghanistan: 2001–2014 (IDSA, Pentagon Press, New Delhi, 2015) and the editor of India and South Asia: Exploring Regional Perceptions (Pentagon Press, 2015) and India’s Neighbourhood: The Armies of South Asia (Pentagon Press, 2013).

Reviews on his book on Afghanistan have been published in The Journal of Slavic Military Studies (Taylor & Francis), Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, The Book Review, India Today and The Pioneer. An abridged Farsi translation of the book was later brought out by an Afghan publisher.

He has travelled in Afghanistan and has participated in various national and international academic fora. He has delivered talks & lectures at various training academies and institutes. At MP-IDSA, along his research, he also had a decade long editorial stint with the Institute’s website, including editor website from 2019 to 2022.