Dietmar Rothermund is Emeritus Professor at Heidelberg University, Germany. He taught and conducted research at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, from 1968 until his retirement in 2001. He received the state decoration, the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2011. His books include India: The Rise of an Asian Giant; An Economic History of India; The Routledge Companion to Decolonization; The Global Impact of the Great Depression: 1929 1939; and Contemporary India: Political, Economic and Social Development since 1947.