In Forged in Crisis: India and the United States Since 1947, Rudra Chaudhuri explores the history and ups and downs of India-US relations, from the conclusion:
“India’s relationship with the US has been the most comprehensive association the country has had since independence. Indeed, as this book finds, the more popular reading of the relations between these two democracies is erroneously described as inherently fractious and necessarily in conflict. Marred by disagreements, vastly different approaches to international affairs and the less-than charitable view of the other held by principals and officials… has given rise to an entire body of literature that treats the India-US relationship as one characterized by mutual ‘estrangement.’ The so-called ‘transformation’ in US-Indian relations, commentators contend, took place only after the collapse of the Soviet Union….
“Nonetheless, the [debate over the Iraq War and subsequent] strategic agreements reached between India and US… were not solely the product of initiatives launched in the 1990s or the early 2000s. In fact, as this book argues, these were only made possible because India and the US had long engaged each other in a series of crises that gradually forged a deeper sense for each other’s motivations and aspirations. This is truly a relationship forged in crisis.”
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