India was born as a rebel and the nationalist anti-colonial leadership that took charge of running the Government of India starting with the interim set up of 1946-47 had little experience in conducting foreign policy negotiations. Yet, at the dawn of independence, India already had an emerging canvas of foreign policy challenges stretching from Kashmir, big power politics, to technology import and industrialisation at home. As a result, the government of Prime Minister Nehru had to scramble to set up a service dedicated exclusively to diplomacy – the Indian Foreign Service. The diplomats of the first decade were personally selected by Jawaharlal Nehru and his close advisers including Girja Shankar Bajpai.

This book is a tour of the time in which the foreign service was created and also a recollection of the careers of some of the best officers – Leilamani Naidu, KM Kannampilly, Chandra Shekhar Jha, TN Kaul, Cyril John Stracey, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, and others – covering the entire spread of the Cold War to the early 20th century. This monograph plans to present the world as it was dealt with by first generation diplomats like A P Venkateswaran, Soonu Maneck Kapadia and Brajesh Mishra

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