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Common Futures: India and Africa in Partnership
Africa and India must reframe the narratives of their shared past to shape their common future. The story of theirstruggles against colonial rule, non-alignment during the Cold War, lack of voice inglobal institutions, marginalization in trade regimes and challenge of emancipation at home is an old one. The two regions need to write an ambitious history of their future and craft anaction-oriented agenda of growth. The narrative of one-way development flow from India and Africa is also outdated. Both regions share the contradictions of dynamic economic growth and extreme poverty and have as much to teach each other as they have to the world. The India – Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi in October 2015 will be the largest summit of its kind and bring together 42 African heads of state. The partnership is garnering the attention it deserves but leaders need to move beyond tokenism and liberate the potential of Africa and India as the two growth poles of the world. Forever connected by the Indian Ocean we can write our destinies.
Africa with its 54 countries is over ten times the size of India but has roughly the same population — just over one billion people. The demographic structures are also very similar. In India more than fifty percent of the population is below the age of twenty five and in most African states, half or more of the population is under twenty five years of age. The collective strength of Africa and India is their young population. We need fresh ideas. The future belongs to young voices. This volume brings together contributions from young thinkers from both the regions to share ideas on how to make development happen.
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