Abstract
Diplomatic relations between India and Germany were established by Nehru and Adenauer in 1951. Nehru visited Germany in 1956 and talked to Adenauer at length. Germany later on provided economic aid to India and helped to build the Rourkela steel mill and the IIT Madras (Chennai), German cultural institutes (Max Mueller Bhavan) were established in several Indian cities. Nehru refrained from recognizing the German Democratic Republic. After a promising beginning in this early period, Indo-German relations were caught in the doldrums of benign neglect from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. No German chancellor visited India for 19 years. After Helmut Kohls visits of India and Rajiv Gandhis visit of Germany (1988) Indo-German relations gained a new momentum. India’s economic growth attracted the interest of German industrialists. The Indo-German Chamber of Commerce emerged as the leading bilateral organisation of this kind. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) launched a, ‘New Passage to India’ encouraging German students to study in India. At the same time more scholarships were given to Indian students and German scientists started important joint projects with their Indian colleagues. An area of very productive cooperation has begun.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.