LAUSR

This contrasts with the Indian international relations and political science scholarship on North America, Europe and East Asia. Although this is a book about ‘developmental policy’ and not diplomacy per se, archive-based analyses of diplomatic and political engagements on developmental assistance would have added factual substance to the usual ululations about India’s great support of Africa – or would have assisted with moderating those claims. Furthermore, as important as this book is, it focuses heavily on a relatively well-studied region of the continent: Eastern Africa. Other African regions are marginalized in the discussion. Partly, this is a function of the nature of Indian developmental assistance and diaspora politics, which have a long lineage in Eastern Africa. But surprisingly, even Southern Africa, which otherwise acquires considerable real estate in scholarship on India in Africa, gets little mention. From an Indian strategic point of view, Western Africa, an important region, also remains curiously absent from the book. All in all, this is an insightful and timely intervention that will be an invaluable resource for African studies scholarship in India and elsewhere.