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ABSTRACT
India’s leaders have pursued a series of ambitious agendas in international relations, driven by a sense of national destiny and civilisational mission. This article explores these different agendas and the strategies they shaped, noting the underlying convictions that unite them: that India’s civilisational inheritance has lessons for the world, that India’s status is yet to be properly respected, and that New Delhi must strive for the highest levels of autonomy India can attain in international affairs. It argues, however, that their pursuit has been confounded by domestic challenges, which inhibit India’s capacity to accumulate power and exert influence.
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Notes
1. On this awareness, see, (Chacko, Citation2012) and (Chatterjee Miller, Citation2013).
2. On national role conceptions, see Holsti’s classic study (Holsti, Citation1970).
3. On Saraswati, see, (Scott, Citation2014), and on Chattopadhyay, see, (Chatterjee, Citation1986), pp. 54-84.
4. For a useful introduction to these thinkers, see, (Sharma, Citation2003).
5. Nehru’s ambivalence about religion in general and Hinduism in particular, as well as his views on theosophy, are clear in his Autobiography (Nehru, Citation1936/1982) [1936] and Nehru (Citation1946/2004).
6. See especially (Nayar & Paul, Citation2003), pp. 115-158, and (Subrahmanyam, Citation2012).
7. According to Nehru’s confidante, V. K. Krishna Menon, he apparently disapproved of the term ‘non-alignment’, but came to accept it (Brecher, Citation1968, p. 3).
8. On neutralism in theory and practice, and compared to non-alignment, see, (Lyon, Citation1963).
9. On the diversion of resources, see, (Wilkinson, Citation2015), pp. 86-123.
10. On Haksar, see, (Ramesh, Citation2018).
11. On the conventional build-up, see, (Kavic, Citation1967), pp. 192-207, and on the nuclear programme, see, (Perkovich, Citation2001).
12. In Indira Gandhi’s view, ‘[d]iplomacy and the conduct of foreign affairs are generally thought to require a certain shrewdness. Perhaps this is important: Machiavelli and Chanakya certainly thought so’ (Gandhi, Citation1982, p. 95).
13. On India’s approach to these challenges, see, (Rajagopalan, Citation2007).
14. Not all, of course, were happy with this partnership. See, (Ollapally & Rajagopalan, Citation2012), pp. 101-105.