Diplomatic protocols | Independent Indian: Work & Life of Professor Subroto Roy

Subroto Roy finds it odd in diplomatic law and protocol that two American Presidents in succession have said respectively to the same Indian Prime Minister “You’re a good man” and a person of “honesty and integrity”.

Subroto Roy thinks Asia (from Israel-Palestine to Japan & Indonesia) needs its own Metternich and Congress of Vienna, but won’t get it and hence may remain many many decades behind Europe in political development. (And why Asia won’t get what Europe did may be because Europe did what it did.)

Subroto Roy agrees with Professor Juan Cole’s summary position: “India and Russia want an Obama ‘surge’ in Afghanistan because they are afraid that if Muslim extremists take over the country, that development could threaten their own security. China is more or less bankrolling the Afghanistan War…In contrast, Pakistan does not seem… eager for the further foreign troops, in part because it wants to project power and influence into Afghanistan itself”. But he would add Russia, China, India and Iran too are free-riders from the military standpoint (though India has built power-stations, roads etc for civilian economic development), while Pakistan remains schizophrenic as to whether it wishes to define itself by the lights of Iqbal and Jinnah or by the lunacy of Rahmat Ali.

My Ten Articles on China, Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan in relation to India (2007-2009)

September 19, 2009 — drsubrotoroy

I have had a close interest in China ever since the “Peking Spring” more than thirty years ago (if not from when I gave all my saved pocket money to Nehru in 1962 to fight the Chinese aggression) but I had not published anything relating to China until 2007-2008 when I published the ten articles listed below:

“Understanding China”, The Statesman Oct 22 2007

“India-US interests: Elements of a serious Indian foreign policy”, The Statesman Oct 30 2007

“China’s India Aggression”, The Statesman, Nov 5 2007,

“Surrender or Fight? War is not a cricket match or Bollywood movie. Can India fight China if it must? “ The Statesman, Dec 4 2007

“China’s Commonwealth: Freedom is the Road to Resolving Taiwan, Tibet, Sinkiang” The Statesman, December 17, 2007

“Nixon & Mao vs India: How American foreign policy did a U-turn about Communist China’s India aggression”. The Statesman, January 7 2008.

“Lessons from the 1962 War: there are distinct Tibetan, Chinese and Indian points of view that need to be mutually comprehended,” The Statesman, January 15, 2008

“China’s India Example: Tibet, Xinjiang May Not Be Assimilated Like Inner Mongolia, Manchuria”, The Statesman, March 25, 2008

“China’s force and diplomacy: The need for realism in India”, The Statesman, May 31, 2008

“Transparency and history” (with Claude Arpi), Business Standard, Dec 31 2008

With new tensions on the Tibet-India border apparently being caused by the Chinese military, these may be helpful for India to determine a Plan B, or even a Plan A, in its dealings with Communist China.

https://independentindian.com/2009/11/25/on-the-zenith-and-nadir-of-us-india-relations/

Posted in Academic research, Asia and the West, Britain in India, British imperialism, British military doctrine and traditions, Chiang Kaishek, China, China's Commonwealth, China's dissidents, China's Economy, China's expansionism, China's History, China's military, China's nationalism, China's Politics, China's religions, China's wars, China-India Relations, China-Pakistan relations, China-Taiwan problem, China-Tibet problem, Chumbi Valley, Cold War, Communist China, Communists, Confucius, Dalai Lama, Democracy, Deng Xiaoping, Diplomacy, Diplomatic protocols, Diplomatic recognition, Dorjiev, East Turkestan, Gobi Desert, Government of India, Government of Pakistan, Himalayas, India in international law, India's military doctrine, India's communists, India's Foreign Policy, India's History, India's Land, India's Military Defence, India-China relations, India-USA interests, Indian subcontinent, International diplomacy, International Law, International politics, Jammu & Kashmir in international law, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kuomintang, Laddakh, Laws of war, Manchu and Mongol Tartars, Manmohan Singh, Mao Zedong, Military doctrine, Mongolia, Open and Closed Societies, Sikkim, Sinification, Sinkiang, Sino-Indian Border, Strategic thinking, Taiwan, Tibet, War, World History, Xinjiang, Zhou Enlai. Leave a Comment »

From being a critic to becoming a fan of the Clintons

August 5, 2009 — drsubrotoroy

I got to Washington in the summer of 1992, just before the Clintons arrived, and lived there through all of 1993 and a bit of 1994. It is fair to say I have been continually critical — right until Mrs Clinton’s brilliant speech at the Democratic convention last year. Now I may have become a bit of a fan. Could the successful North Korea visit be Bill Clinton’s most dignified and single most poignant political deed? And Hillary appears to have finally found her calling as Secretary of State. She was an excellent diplomatist on her recent India-visit — and certainly put our rather dull political class into the shade. President Obama gets some credit here for good managerial decisions behind the scenes.

Subroto Roy

Posted in Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Communists, Diplomacy, Diplomatic protocols, Diplomatic recognition, Hillary Clinton, India's Diplomacy, International diplomacy, Korea, Obama Administration, US Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Espionage. Leave a Comment »

Disquietude about France’s behaviour towards India on July 14 2009

July 14, 2009 — drsubrotoroy

The Indian press and media, especially the Government-owned part, exulted about Dr Manmohan Singh’s presence at France’s Bastille Day parade this year. And of course it was generally a splendid occasion and there were things that the organisers of Indian military parades could have and should have learnt from it. But there were two sources of disquietude.

Did anyone but myself notice that Dr Manmohan Singh had been placed on the left hand side of the French President? Is that the place of a Guest of Honour?

Who was on the right hand side? Germany’s President Horset Köhler. Why? Some French reports said Dr Singh was the Guest of Honour; others said both were. Either way diplomatic protocol should have placed Dr Singh to the right of President Sarkozy. If President Köhler too was an equivalent Guest of Honour through some last minute diplomatic mishap, he should have been to the right of Dr Singh.

France slighted India by placing Dr Singh to the left of President Sarkozy and still calling him the Guest of Honour. (And why Dr Singh was invited was clearly not because of any new great power status for India but firstly to reciprocate the recent invitation to President Sarkozy last 26 January, and secondly, to gain advantage in business deals with India.)

Secondly, what business did a French paratrooper have to parachute out of an aircraft holding India’s tricolour and then, upon landing, drag it momentarily on the ground? What business did two French paratroopers have to be holding the Indian tricolour in a salute to the French President?

Again, France has slighted India.

I love Paris and I am generally Francophilic — except for such instances of Napoleonic self-aggrandisement.

Subroto Roy

Postscript July 15: Where her husband did not, Mme Sarkozy did get the protocol right, placing Mme Singh to her immediate right and Mme Köhler to Mme Singh’s right.

Posted in Diplomacy, Diplomatic protocols, France, Germany, Imperialism, India in international law, India's protocols, India's Diplomacy, India's Foreign Policy, India's Foreign Service, India's independence, India's Nationalism, International diplomacy, International Law, Manmohan Singh, Protocol. 1 Comment »

Bibliography, Books, Public Lectures, Memoranda, Memoirs

Some Recent Work

My Recent Tweets

Index of Names and Subjects

The most important of these are in the newspapers and/or at this site too. I will try to have everything reproduced here.

00) https://independentindian.com/2015/03/03/pakistans-indias-illusions-of-power-psychosis-vs-vanity/

0) India-Pakistan Diplomacy During the 1965 War: the MK Roy Files, at this site

1) https://independentindian.com/2011/11/22/pakistans-point-of-view-or-points-of-view-on-kashmir-my-as-yet-undelivered-lahore-lecture-part-i/

2) Law, Justice and Jammu & Kashmir (2006)

Monday, October 5, 2009

3) Solving Kashmir: On an Application of Reason (2005) https://independentindian.com/2005/12/03/solving-kashmir-on-an-application-of-reason/

Monday, October 5, 2009

4) My (armchair) experience of the 1999 Kargil war (Or, How the Kargil effort got a little help from a desktop)

Thursday, April 29, 2010

5) Understanding Pakistan (2006)

Monday, October 5, 2009

6) Pakistan’s Allies (2006)

Monday, October 5, 2009

7) History of Jammu & Kashmir

Monday, October 5, 2009

8) from 30 years ago, now in pdf

9) Talking to my student and friend Amir Malik about Pakistan and its problems

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

10) My thanks to Mr Singh for seeing the optimality of my Kashmir solution

Sunday, September 4, 2011

11) Zafrullah, my father, and the three frigates: there was no massacre of the Hindu Sindhi refugees in Karachi in 1947

Saturday, August 27, 2011

12) Conversation with Mr Birinder R Singh about my Kashmir solution

Saturday, August 20, 2011

13) On the Hurriyat’s falsification of history

Friday, August 19, 2011

14) Letter from a young Pashtun whose grandfathers were in the 1947 invasion of Kashmir (which the Hurriyat says never happened)

Friday, August 19, 2011

15) More on my solution

Thursday, August 18, 2011

16 ) A Hurriyat/Taliban Islamist emirate in the Valley subject to an Indian blockade would likely face famine.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

17) There is no Kashmiri nationality and there never has been in the modern era of international law

18) Of the Flag of Pakistan, and the Union Jack, and the Flag of India — August 14-15 1947

Sunday, August 14, 2011

19) Talking about Kashmir in 1947 to Ralph Coti

Saturday, August 13, 2011

20) Conversation with Prof. Bhim Singh about 1947

Saturday, August 13, 2011

21) The LOC represents the division of ownerless, sovereignless territory won by military conquest by either side…

Monday, August 1, 2011

22) Talking to Mr Tauseef

Monday, August 1, 2011

23) J&K had ceased to exist as an entity in international law by August 15 1947, at most by October 22 1947

Sunday, July 31, 2011

24) Would someone be kind enough to tell me which freedoms Indian Kashmiris are being deprived of?

Friday, July 29, 2011

25) Kunan Poshpora: I would say the evidence reported by the Verghese Committee itself was enough to indicate there had been rape 28 July 2011

26) Talking to Mr Rameez Makhdoomi about Kashmir

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

27) And, as you well know, General Hasnain is both Muslim and Kashmiri, besides being the Commanding Officer of 15 Corps.

Friday, July 22, 2011

28) Kashmir needs a Coroner’s Office!

Friday, July 22, 2011

29) A slogan for Kashmir: No exaggerations, no hallucinations, no cover-ups please: Just the plain facts & accountability

Friday, July 22, 2011

30) Towards a Spatial Model of Kashmir’s Political History

Sunday, July 17, 2011

31) Why did Allama Iqbal say “India is the greatest Muslim country in the world…”?

Friday, July 15, 2011

32) Conversation with Mr Arif

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

33) Omar Qayoom Bhat: A Victim of State Repression in J&K

Monday, July 11, 2011

34) Good and evil in Kashmir over more than a millennium…

Sunday, June 26, 2011

35) Letter to Mr Zargar (Continued)

June 23, 2011

36) From the Official Indian Army website re Human Rights Violations

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

37) A Facebook Discussion on Kashmir with the Lahore Oxford & Cambridge Society

Sunday, June 19, 2011

38) Answering two central questions on the Kashmir Problem

Friday, June 10, 2011

39) Some articles on Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan

3) Solving Kashmir: On an Application of Reason (2005)
https://independentindian.com/2005/12/03/solving-kashmir-on-an-application-of-reason/