“I Wrote The Book Because…”: S Jaishankar On His ‘Why Bharat Matters’

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, while speaking on his book “Why Bharat Matters”, said that whether you’re an Indian national or someone living abroad, it is important to understand ‘Why Bharat Matters’, because it will be bigger in the coming decade and in the century.

While speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2024, Mr Jaishankar said on Friday, “I wrote the book because I was really convinced it was important to present an argument today why, whether you are a national of this country or whether you are someone living abroad, it’s important to understand, why Bharat matters, that we will be bigger in everybody’s lives in the coming decade and the coming century.”

He further explained that the book is about the state of the world, globalization, technology and digital.

“I think it’s obviously about the state of the world, the longer trend of rebalancing, but the shocks that I’ve referred to, it’s about globalization, the advances of globalization, but also the shortcomings, and problems created by globalization. It’s about technology and digital and how, again, they hold such great promise, but they have made us in many ways so vulnerable,” he added.

Moreover, he emphasised that his book “Why Bharat Matters” is about why foreign policy matters to everyone.

“It’s about telling people not involved in foreign policy why foreign policy matters to you. Because for many years, certainly in my country…a lot of people said, that’s not our problem. Somebody is taking care of it,” he said.

He further said that he travels around the country, “telling people, look, something happened. There was COVID; you heard about it. You saw it on social media, you heard about it on TV, and when it came to your homes, it took over your lives. Or what we saw as a consequence of the conflict in Ukraine, the energy hikes, the price hikes, and the food shortages in many parts of the world.”

Moving further to his second book, “The India Way,” EAM Jaishankar highlighted that his first book was about the way, and the second is about India’s significance in people’s lives.

“The first one was about the way, the second is about India’s significance in people’s lives.”

He further said that he used the word Bharat in the second book, “Why Bharat Matters” as opposed to “The India Way” because “I’m trying to capture, a kind of transformation that has taken place in our society, in our polity, in our mindset, in our approach to the world.”

Moreover, he said, “If we look at the thought processes that are driving us today, they are much more authentic. They are much more deeply rooted in our culture, in our traditions, in our heritage.”