Book Description

India- Armenia: So Far Yet So Close, written by Achal Malhotra, who served as India's Ambassador to Armenia (2009-12), traces the origins of people to people contacts between Armenia and India to at least 2nd century B.C., and thereafter narrates the story of the glorious past of Armenians in India from medieval India up to India's independence in 1947. He finally highlights the emergence of a new quality of cooperation between the Indian and the Armenian people at the end of the 20th century, which came as a result of the establishment of official ties between the newly independent Republic of Armenia and India on August 31, 1992, and presents his own inspirational vision for the future of this cooperation, based on his insights as a key player in its development. The readers will be struck with the drastic contrast between the harmonious integration and prosperity of Armenians in Indian society in the past and the apparent absence of Armenians from the landscape of contemporary Indian culture, business and politics. The exodus of the erstwhile prosperous Armenian population from India was nothing but a misread of the situation and a miscalculation of the country’s future on the part of Indian-Armenians in the 20th century. India- Armenia: So Far Yet So Close is intended to trigger interest in its theme, help readers to visualize the distant past and introduce unfamiliar readers with the vibrant history shared between the two ancient people.