For a vocal section of Kathmandu intelligentsia, being anti-Indian in beliefs, words and deeds is the very essence of Nepali patriotism. Such a boorishness irritates the Indians and does immense harm to the interests of Nepalis. In New Delhi, where the fate of Nepal's economy, politics and society is often determined, it is becoming increasingly unfashionable to speak for the legitimate claims of a landlocked neighbour.

The hawkish South Block view that Nepal must know its proper place and learn to stay there has suddenly begun to assert itself in the Indian capital. Even the left-liberal literati, traditionally the strongest champions of Nepali interests in India, keep quiet when the assertive rightists of the RSS variety fling wild allegations about the supposed activities of Pakistani ISI in the Nepal tarai.

This is why the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) has taken a risk by establishing a full-fledged Nepal Centre. But it is a risk that needed to be taken, and the think-tank funded by the redoubtable Ambanis is perhaps the most suitable organisation to examine the whole gamut of Nepal-India relations in order to reorient it towards the future.

The Nepal Centre has a line-up of usual suspects, although the formidable KV Rajan isn't there anymore. Other ex-ambassadors to Nepal like M Rasgotra and AR Deo continue to dominate proceedings at every meet it organises. The Nepal Centre's first offering on Nepal (a trashy monograph on the Maoists by JNU scholar SD Muni) was a blinkered perspective on the insurgency.

This book is a record of the proceedings of the seminar 'India-Nepal Relations: Perspectives for the future' that ORF organised earlier this year. There are 25 contributors, including weighty worthies Lok Raj Baral and Bekh Bahadur Thapa, our former ambassadors in New Delhi. Nepal is represented by 10 scholars in the collection. Predictably, there is no former Nepali officer of the Indian Gorkhas on the list. No Madhesi makes the grade, unless you consider Arun Choudhary to be a representative of the people of tarai. There is nobody to articulate the concerns of the Nepali people living in the region west of the Karnali River. No wonder then, that this is just another tired collection of worn-out platitudes about the 'age-old ties between wo closest neighbours'.

The worthies from the Indian side include equally staid scholars. In the overview chapter at the beginning of the book, ex-foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal accuses Bhek Bahadur Thapa of saying nothing new and then goes on to say nothing new himself. A phalanx of former policy makers like Jagat Mehta, VP Malik, AK Mehta, AN Ram, RR Iyer and Salman Haider then go on to confirm the widely held view in the capital cities of India's neighbours that the babus and brasses of New Delhi begin to see the merits of closer relations among South Asian nations only after they are retired. No wonder the so-called Track Three SAARC diplomacy is completely dominated by the granddaddies of the Indian foreign policy establishment.

The merit of the book perhaps lies in its very predictability. In his concluding observations, M Rasgotra finds Kanak Mani Dixit's idea about the Kathmandu-Patna-Lucknow triangle attractive, but he is unwilling to explore the idea any further on his own. Lok Raj Baral thinks that Indo-Nepal relations should be contextualised, and we should 'inject trust, understanding, cooperation, coordination and any other elements that could be injected into it .' Everyone advocating a fenced border between India and Nepal must take note of these suggestions.

The problem with the Nepal-India relationship is that almost all the clich?s about it are true. No template of border management in the world fits a reality where citizens of one country are some of the first ones to face bullets whenever there is trouble in another state on the other's border. No cannon of diplomacy can define why even ministers and serving diplomats of one state deem it fit to touch the feet of the head of state of another state. Perhaps a relationship as intimate and passionate as this needs no definition. Yet another book on India-Nepal relations needed to be published precisely because this one is redundant. We wouldn't have known it otherwise.

India-Nepal Relations: The Challenge Ahead
Observer Research Foundation, 2004
Rupa and Company, New Delhi
Rs 1,112