In recent years, India has become a favorite metaphor to describe developments and phenomena considered characteristic of globalization. Rapid economic and population growth, environmental degradation, geostrategic rivalries, mega cities, global cultural production: India has it all. A transnational perspective on the 65 years of India’s independence has much to offer and some to add to existing studies. The argument is based on the observation that India has a rich history of transnational connections and exchanges, and that it is important to contextualize India’s current developments in its transnational history. Much of what has been happening in the past twenty years has roots which reach back much farther. Only if we study India in the world since 1947 we can understand India in the world today and tomorrow.

Andreas Hilger specializes in the history of 20th-Century International Relations and on Soviet History. He lectures at Hamburg University and is currently working for the Independent Commission on the History of the German Intelligence Service. He has published on Soviet, German, and International history as well as on the history of Indo-Soviet relations. Corinna R. Unger is Associate Professor of Modern European History at Jacobs University Bremen. She has published on the history of development aid and modernization, philanthropy and exile, the history of science, and on the Cold War.