Indo-Australian connections run deep, back to the very pre-history of our two nations. On 21 July 2009, Science Daily reported a study by the Anthropological Survey of India that showed that central Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic tribes shared genetic traits with Australian aborigines. These findings lend strength to the theory that Australian aboriginal populations travelled by the “Southern” route, via Arabia and South Asia, and Indonesia some 50000 years back. Australoid tribes, who formed the majority of Australians before the European conquest, are very rare today, but “relic” groups are still found in South India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. More recently, a study by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, shows a significant gene flow from India to Australia as recently as 4000 years back.

While these connections need much more research and present tantalizing possibilities, the buzz between the two nations thickens considerably during colonialism. Quite rightly some have called them “colonial cousins”; the book by this title by Joyce Westrip and Peggy Holroyde is not only well-known but shows in astonishing detail of the close relationship between the two members of the British Empire. It is significant that the connections spill over into the animal world as well: the kinship between the famed wild camels of Australia that originally came from India, or the sturdy Australian horse that was popular in India, and the sheep, source of Australia’s prosperity, from Bengal. These connections range from race, class, gender, culture, architecture, town planning, to administration, governance, and geopolitics. Even the hill stations in Australia, as Andrea Scott Inglis shows, were modelled on their Indian predecessors and counterparts. Some of these flows were structured and regulated by the colonial regimes of power, but a good deal of the exchange and circulation not just of people and ideas but of flora, fauna, and artefacts was uncontrolled and informal. The “colonial cosmopolitanism” generated by the English language and the strong sporting links flourishes and continues till today.

If the colonial connections were strong, the postcolonial relations between the two countries are even richer, more varied, and valuable, thanks partly to a sizeable and growing South Asian diaspora in Australia. These communities have contributed not only to the cultural and creative diversity of Australia but are also studied in India among them, Adib Khan, Brian Castro, Manisha Jolie Amin, Michelle Cahill, Suneeta Peres da Costa, Roanna Gonsalves, Yasmine Gooneratne, Chandani Lokuge, Aashish Kaul, Bem le Hunte, Subhash Jaireth,  Sudesh Mishra, Vijay Mishra, Chris Raja, Kunal Sharma and the Booker-winning Aravinda Adiga, the author of The White Tiger. Similarly, a large number of Australians like Alfred Deakin, Christopher Koch, Dal Stivens, David Malouf, Inez Baranay, Joan London, John Lang, Mollie Skinner and Gregory D. Roberts, have written about India.

So, commonalities between the two countries abound: both India and Australia are indigenous and multicultural societies, with a liberal, democratic disposition. The recent growth of strategic and economic cooperation looks forward to the ushering in of the so-called “Asian century,” in which India and Australia are expected to be critical players – both seeking convergences and exploring opportunities to beef up the strategic partnership, which is still at a nascent stage. Partnerships to secure uninterrupted energy and trade supplies are bringing them closer on that front. New ways of looking at the region with new constructs and definitions are also likely to emerge primarily because of the budding shoots of systemic change in the international security architecture, in which the two democracies have massive stakes: the unprecedented rise of China and USA’s re-engagement with East Asia through the ‘pivot toward Asia’ strategy. Peter Varghese, former Australian High Commissioner to India was quoted by The Australian as saying, “Today it makes more sense to think of the Indo-Pacific, rather than the Asia-Pacific, as the crucible of Australian security.” While the fluid strategic situation has prompted both India and Australia to hedge their bets, it is also working as a stimulant for them in striving for greater bilateral and multilateral defence cooperation. As Indian Ocean states, both India and Australia, have shared interests in the stability of the Indian Ocean Region making maritime environment key to future planning. The ‘look east’ policy helps return India to the region’s strategic matrix. As responsible stakeholders in the East Asian institutional dynamics, India and Australia work closely in ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum), EAS (East Asia Summit), ADMM Plus (ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting), IONS (Indian Ocean Naval Symposium) and IOR-ARC (Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation).
In a scenario abuzz with platitudes of bilateral relations, regionalism, globalization and transnationalism, we intend to launch on a more serious academic exploration to the different domains of interaction between Australia and India.

Some of the broad areas that can be explored are:

• Originary Links: Linguistic/flora/fauna/trade/etc
• ‘Colonial Cousins:’  language and literature trade/strategy?/notions of empire/nationalism/nation
• Postcolonial Siblings: literature/language/identity politics/ethnicities
• Family today or contemporary kin
• India- Australia strategic partnership: The road ahead
• India, Australia, and the US ‘pivot toward Asia’
• Rise of China: Responses from India and Australia
• New wave of Regionalism: What it Means for India and Australia
• India-Australia Maritime Cooperation: Problems and prospects
• India-Australia Resource Cooperation: Energising relationship
• India-Australia nuclear cooperation: Retrospect and prospects

These are only broad areas; you are welcome to write on any other aspect that is in keeping with the themes outlined in the concept note.