Madhav Das Nalapat
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Madhav Das Nalapat (aka M D Nalapat, aka Monu Nalapat), holds the UNESCO Peace Chair and is a professor of geopolitics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, an elite private university in Southern India. A one-time resident editor of the Times of India, Prof. Nalapat writes extensively on security issues and international affairs. Nalapat has no formal role in the Indian government, although he influences policy at the highest levels. His mother is the famous Indian poet Kamala Das.
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[edit] Career
M. D. Nalapat began his academic career as fellow of the Centre for Political Research in 1974. Four years later he moved to business management, taking over as executive director of the Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Company Limited, in which capacity he implemented the Trivandrum edition project in the record time of twenty-seven months. In 1984 he switched to the editorial side, taking over as editor of the Mathrubhumi Daily and the Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly. ABC figures will show the exponential growth of circulation during his period (1984-88). As editor, he gave prominence to the war against corruption and against social evils such as discrimination against women and dalits.
In 1989 he shifted from Malayalam to English-language journalism, becoming the resident editor Times of India at Bangalore. Once again, circulation and credibility surged after the edition broke free of the hidden censorship of the political class. In 1994 he moved to Delhi as resident editor of the Times of India. He took over as Chief of News Bureau in 1995 and co-coordinating editor in 1997, before becoming contributing editor in end-1998 to concentrate on writing. In these capacities, he developed his ideas on secular nationalism and its use in nation-building. The next year, he merged journalism with academics, becoming the professor of geopolitics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education and distinguished fellow of the University of Georgia. In the past, he has served on the academic committees of Trivandrum, Calicut and Bangalore Universities.
He has contributed to leading publications throughout the world and has written six books, the latest of which is INDUTVA, the thesis of which is that every Indian is a synthesis of Hindu/Vedic, Moghul and European heritage and so communalism makes no sense. Apart from his work, he has played a key role in the literacy movement in Kerala, as honorary co-coordinator of Kerala Association for Non-formal Education and Development. He was also the honorary secretary of the Kerala Children’s Film Society, which screens educational films for children. He has also been active in environmental issues as honorary secretary of the Kerala Forestry Board.
[edit] Initiatives
[edit] India-Israel-U.S. relations
During the days when India was frozen in the Cold War block, there was not much attention being paid to his view that closer economic ties with the U.S. would be better than ties to the U.S.S.R. But, in 1991, one of his mentors, P. V. Narasimha Rao, took over as prime minister and put together an informal "kitchen cabinet", including Nalapat, to develop new ideas on economics and national security.
With the U.S. and Indian foreign policy establishments still suspicious of each other, an icebreaker was needed. The Indian diaspora in the U.S. -- one of the most prosperous and educated groups in that country -- was seemingly made-to-order, not only in helping convince Washington to forget India's pro-Moscow Cold War tilt, but also using networks of family and friends in India to chip away at the hostility of several key officials toward a warming of ties with the U.S.
Nalapat started promoting the creation of formal networks among Americans of East Indian descent in 1992. By 1995, Indian-Americans had formed lobbying organizations in Washington that were modelled -- not accidentally -- on the successful Jewish-American groups. Here also was a backdoor way to encourage closer relations between Israel and India: Nalapat saw Jewish-Americans as the perfect ally for Indian-Americans in Washington. "Indians and Jews shared a sense of humour and slightly chaotic minds", he wrote. "They were born to be close." By 1999, the alliance between the two diasporas had begun to resonate on Capitol Hill.
The relationship became so strong that, in 2003, they played a large part in successfully lobbying the American government to allow Israel to sell Phalcon airborne early warning radar systems to India. In fact, in a decade India and Israel have gone from the skimpiest official relationship to Jerusalem being the second largest defence supplier to India (after Russia). The new Indo-Israeli-U.S. security trio came out of the closet in 2003, with Nalapat hosting a high-level trilateral conference in New Delhi. The following year the conference was held in Herzliyya, Israel; a third was held in Washington.
[edit] India-Taiwan relations
Nalapat has also worked on improving Indo-Taiwan relations. He considers Taiwan a country that is important to the balance of power in Asia. Because of a hesitation to provoke China -- which shares a 3,400-km border with India -- New Delhi had gingerly avoided closer contact with the island powerhouse whose exports are more than double India's. However, because of concern about China's growing might, several policy-makers in New Delhi are appreciative of Nalapat's call to develop close scientific and business links with Taiwan. Since 2003, some key officials from both countries have been quietly visiting each other, and more than 5,000 Indian high-tech personnel now work in Taiwan. Slowly the relationship is coming out into the open.
To the Taiwanese, Nalapat has stressed commonalities: India and Taiwan are both democracies, something important to the Americans; India excels in software, Taiwan dominates in hardware; India needs investment, Taiwan is looking to diversify. Some of that investment would be in India's high-tech sector. And there is also the lure of India's $150-billion infrastructure market: India needs roads, ports and the like -- projects in which the Taiwanese have much experience.
[edit] India-China relations
In 2000,Prof. Nalapat organized the first non-official India-China conference in which serving members of the armed forces of both countries participated. Since 1998, he has visited China several times, meeting Communist Party of China officials, People's Liberation Army officers, academics and others. He has also lectured at Peking and Fudan universities. In December 2003, he was part of the India team at the India-China Round Table organized by the University of Hong Kong. His department at MAHE has hosted several meetings, conferences and lectures with Chinese experts, at which efforts have been made to understand and afterwards suggest ways to harmonize the policies of both countries.
[edit] India-Iran relations
Professor Nalapat also lectured on Secularism at the Shahid Behesti University, Teheran, in December 2004 and introduced himself as a friend and admirer of both the US and Israel as well as an admirer of the Persian people and their history and culture.
[edit] NAATO
Another Nalapat proposal, pitched to Pentagon officials in September 2003, is for a North America-Asia Treaty Organization (NAATO), anchored by the U.S. and India, that would serve as a security system for Asian democracies. Canada would also be a partner, along with Japan, Singapore, Australia and South Korea.
The Americans may be receptive. The "core coalition" announced in December 2004 by George W. Bush to fight the effects of the killer tsunami was comprised of the very same countries intended to form the heart of NAATO: the U.S. and India, along with Japan and Australia. While the latter two are no surprises, the presence of India, and the exclusion of China, could be indicative of the future direction of alliances between North America and Asia. This is the first time that India has been at the core of a U.S. alliance. And the announcement of the tsunami coalition was closely followed by the visit of a U.S. delegation to New Delhi to discuss integrating India into the Bush administration's missile defence plan.
Informally, NAATO is already starting to come together. The Singaporean military now trains in India. American warships refuel at Indian ports. Indian ships escort U.S. vessels through parts of the region. Both Japan and Australia have begun joint military exercises and intelligence sharing with India.
[edit] Other achievements
- Conceptualizing the use of the "Business Card" against Pakistan, by forging links with the business community to isolate the generals (1994)
- First mention in the media of involvement of the Pakistan army and elements of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army in drug smuggling (1995)
- First reports on the turning points in both Punjab and Kashmir (1993 and 1996)
- Highlighting the possibility of the NATO-centric India-Russia-China triangle and the alternative US-linked Japan-Korea-Taiwan-Vietnam-Indonesia-India arc to contain China
- Discovering the under funding of India's missile program (1994)
- Madhav Das Nalapat is a gold medalist in economics from the University of Bombay.
[edit] Current affiliations
- Professor of Geopolitics, MAHE
- Distinguished Fellow, The University of Georgia
- Contributing Editor, The Times of India
- Consulting Editor, Indian Defense Review
- Advisor, ASIANET Communications Ltd
- Governing Body member, the Abdus Salam Foundation, London
- Advisory Board member, Centre for South Asia
- Geneva Life Member, Institute of Social & Economic Change, Bangalore
- Senior Associate, National Institute of Advanced Study, Bangalore
- Advisory Board Member, Institute of Management, Meerut
- Non-military member (35 out of 9000), United Services Institution of the Indian Defense Ministry
