THE TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN

India’s relations with Afghanistan have seen both heady highs and depressing lows, but nothing is more surprising than the seeming ‘normalcy’ of the present.  After the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government propped up by the U.S. and its allies, India closed its diplomatic mission in Kabul and even evacuated Hindu and Sikh minorities.  But things changed slowly, but surely as India decided to engage the Taliban without embracing them.

The Taliban in Afghanistan : Changing attitudes of India and the world traces the history of Afghanistan from it being the stage for great power rivalries, to its current oppressed state under the Taliban;  its changing equations with its neighbours, and India; and its newly confident global outreach intended to overcome its alienation and find its place in a divided world pulling in different directions.