India is probably the most important country in the world that Americans know the least about, but that is something you can change very easily by reading this outstanding contemporary history of US-India relations.

Many international analysts were surprised last week when India’s very confident Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave an unmistakable, face-to-face pushback to Russian President Vladimir Putin when he said, “this is not a time of war”, clearly referencing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was a reminder to the world, and to Mr. Putin, how important India has become both to the global economy and to Russia’s.

India continues to achieve impressive growth in its gross domestic product — this year’s is projected to be 7.7%, one of the highest of any major economy and far better than the US at just 1.4% and twice China’s projected 2022 GDP growth of 3.3%, its lowest in 40 years. Not only that but as soon as next year, India’s population of 1.4 billion people will surpass China’s; and the United Nations predicts that India’s population will total 1.7 billion by 2050 while China, long the most populous country in the world, will see its population decline to 1.3 billion.

Here in the United States, Indian Americans are our second largest immigrant group at 4.2 million people, and they also represent the highest earning ethnic group in the country. US relations with India have gone through many ups and downs since the end of the Colonial Era and the achievement of India’s independence from the British Empire. But the importance of India geo-politically has gone nowhere but up. This is a wonderfully accessible, richly informative book that every American should read in order to understand this fascinating country and the profoundly important place it holds in the 21^st century.

Phil Balboni, CEO, Founder and Executive Editor, DailyChatter Publications