4.2 The seven phases of India foreign policy

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From the course by The University of Melbourne

Contemporary India

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The University of Melbourne

Contemporary India

29 ratings

This course presents some important vignettes of a complex, highly diverse India that is also witnessing unprecedented changes since its formal independence in 1947 from Great Britain. The lectures revolve around social dimensions of change, the continuing influence of ancient texts on contemporary India, political democracy, economic transition from the state to the market, gender relations, India's economic globalisation and changing world view. While one of the objectives is to capture the multifaceted process of change, the course also critically examines some of the tensions inherent in these changes. For example, how does gender inequality play itself out in a changing Indian society, how do the modernist conceptions of art entailing market valuation challenge the more socio-centric values found in South India, what are the politics linguistic identities, and how might India address its myriad development challenges such as poverty and unemployment. No specific prior knowledge is required. However, it would be helpful if students are aware of the socio political dynamics at play in contemporary India and keep themselves abreast with current affairs and debates in the country to fully appreciate the various dimensions and contours if the subject matter in the course. This course is taught in English. View the MOOC promotional video here: http://tinyurl.com/hx8mhxb

From the lesson

India's foreign policy

As India's influence increases in the international system, understanding its foreign policy and its engagement with the rest of the world is critical for students of international relations. This section is designed as a comprehensive review of some of the key issues related to India's word view and its behaviour towards the external world. Apart from taking stock of contemporary thinking and policies of the country, the major thrust would be on India's relations with its neighbours and great powers, its nuclear weapons policy and the ideological foundations of its foreign policy after independence.

4.1 Why study India’s foreign policy?9:48

4.2 The seven phases of India foreign policy8:12

4.3 The limits of idealism7:08

4.4 The fractured years, 1962-19708:21

4.5 The idea of power, 1971-19895:54

4.6 The years of reflection, 1990-19988:32

4.7 Consolidation of U.S – India relations4:39

4.8 Back to the future, 2011-20147:31

Meet the Instructors

Anthony D'Costa
Professor
School of Social and Political Sciences

Welcome back.

I'm Amitabh Mattoo talking to you about India's foreign policy.

We talked earlier about why India is interesting or

why India is exceptional and why is India's foreign policy or

engagement the world worth understanding.

Let me now take you to the seven different phases of Indian foreign policy.

The Power of Ideas from 1947 to 1962, the Fractured Years from 1962 to 1970,

the Idea of Power from 1971 to 1989.

The Years of Reflection from 1990 to 1998, The Reality of Power from 1998 to 2011,

Back to the Future from 2011 to 2014 and

Enlightend National Interest 2014 and beyond.

So let me take you through the first ways the Power of Ideas.

The Power of Ideas was a power when India became independent.

From 1947 when India became independent until about 1962

India's foreign policy was rooted in the kind of idealism that had been part

of the Indian Freedom Movement led by the two figures that you see in this slide,

Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Who's described as a father of the nation, but who led the freedom movement,

the movement for independence non-violently, believing as he did

that the highest goal is non-violence.

That there can be no difference between means and ends.

That if you win

your freedom through violence, that freedom would not be worth winning.

And that's why he had made civil disobedience and

non violence the two pillars around which the Indian freedom movement campaigned and

carried out its struggle.

The freedom movement

was the kind of ideology provided the ideological bedrock for

the shaping of India's foreign policy.

And the first expression of that was in a concept called non-alignment.

Remember that India's

first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was also India's foreign minister.

He was educated in Harrow, Cambridge, was called to the bar,

and was one of the most thoughtful leaders that India has ever produced.

His writings and autobiography, his writings on Indian history,

on world history, are even today recommended reading in many universities.

And this whole philosophy of non-alignment was something that he deeply believed in.

The term was first used by Krishna Menon, a protege of Nehru, in 1953.

But the basic philosophy was that India will not

get itself enwalled or

entrapped in the Cold War rivalry between the East and the West.

Recall that there was now a fiery Cold War,

to mix metaphors deliberately, between the Soviet Union-led Warsaw Pact countries and

the United States-led NATO countries.

And most countries in the world, had a part of the Soviet bloc or

demonstrated loyalty to the Soviet bloc or were part of the US-led bloc.

India, newly independent,

took a stand that we will not get trapped in this Cold War.

For us,

our autonomy to decide on what is

right on an issue based principle is important.

And that's why Nehru campaigned for non-alignment a third way.

A way which was different from neutrality.

India said that it's not that we will sit back passively.

We'll take a stand, but we'll take a stand on its merits.

And it was also rooted in the whole idea of Panchsheel,

which India and China had then pioneered based on the five restraints.

Which has mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty,

mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in domestic affairs,

equality and mutual benefit and peaceful co-existence.

So non alignment and Panchsheel went together.

At this stage, Nehru and India believed

in the power of ideas that ideas rather than military power can make a difference.

In any case even realists argue that India's non-aligned

policy was perhaps the best way of influencing the world at the time

given how militarily weak, how economically deprived India was

recently decolonized but

what it had in Nehru was someone who was able to articulate new idea,

think out of the box and earn the respect of several within the world.

Indeed it used to be said when Nehru speaks, the world listens.

There were others, like the Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles,

of the United States, who found nonalignment immoral and said so.

But it was during this idealistic phase of India's foreign policy from

from 1947 to 1962.

That India pioneered new ideas, new policies, new frameworks of thinking,

and some of these were a great belief in decolonisation and anti-apartheid.

India led the movement against apartheid in South Africa, campaigned vigorously and

ferociously for decolonisation of other parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

India was in the forefront of disarmament and peace-making.

Indeed, the first, the precursor to the comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty,

the partial Test-Ban Treaty, was pioneered by India.

India and Nehru were asked

to intervene and mediate in the Korean dispute in the 1950s.

Similarly, on issues of Afro-Asian unity, on believing that the Third World or

the new recently decolonized countries had a common stake in building a more

peaceful world, was part of Nehru's thinking and India's thinking.

India similarly pioneered multilateralism.

In the United Nations, in the Commonwealth.

Many had expected that India would walk out of the Commonwealth,

the moment India attained independence.

In contrast, India believed that any multilateral forum

where you could have a voice, where you could express your opinion.

Where you could, you could articulate new ideas, was a forum

worth contributing to.

So India became a champion of the commonwealth as well.

While pursuing also or for development policies across

the globe which recognise that there were severe equity issues,

that there were parts of the world which were deeply deprived and

were living in deprivation and partially because

of colonisation.

And that there had to be corrective measures introduced multilaterally,

to ensure that there was more even development.

So if you've seen this phase, you see the phase in which India is struggling within

to create stability in the economy, and in the polity, but internationally

it is representing the best ideas of Nehru, of India, and

of the leadership which had led India into independence.

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