It would be an interesting exercise to find out among the comments emerging in journals and less transient newspapers and magazines, a clear enunciation of globalisation.
That of course is not unexpected. Instead of being a specific policy, globalisation is a way of life. Thus it is easier to point out, but is pretty much difficult to pin down. The exploits of the merchant kings of India in the first millennium after the rise of the Kushana empire was quite global. The Indian footprint left its stamp on a wide swathe of nations in South Asia and even further north. The same was visible in the forays of Chinese and sometimes west Asian civilizations.
That stream died out but achieved in establishing the Ricardian thesis that nations gain when they trade with each other.
The rapid growth of international trade between the European imperial powers, the European colonies, and the US has been well recorded. But that process went into a decline after World War II, led by a top-down autarkic plan model which most countries adopted. The process again stirred late in the seventies and has now become a hurricane from which there are no safe harbours. The big change in the globalisation agenda this time was that it was now driven by major advances in technology, leading to sharp fall in trading costs.
There are no boundaries and less a sustained definition of globalisation. Wikipedia defines globalisation tentatively as a centuries long process, tracking the expansion of human population and the growth of civilisation, that has accelerated dramatically in the past 50 years.
These issues are good to remember when perusing Globalisation and Development. The book is the outcome of the papers of a group of scholars who meet at the Annual Conference on Development and Change. ?It is a platform for young, heterodox, scholars?, writes Deshpande. That of course immediately creates some very interesting take-offs on the theme, but immediately checks anyone who might want some standard work on the subject. So if anyone needs to refer to an exact quote from Edward Said or Amartya Sen, this volume is not the one.
It is indeed a problem that despite the critical need to understand globalisation, the shelf of books to push the envelope is still rather limited. For all the expectations, this volume too does not make the cut, the many pages of appendixes and tables notwithstanding.