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Abstract
The puzzle why the Indian intervention in the UN during 1956–1957 on the “Question of Antarctica” fell short of a genuine post-colonial engagement, by choosing not to directly question the territorial claims, has remained largely unanswered. This research report argues that Jawaharlal Nehru’s approach to the “Question of Antarctica” during the first decade of India’s independence, coinciding with the east–west cold war, was a part of what he perceived as India’s “Tryst with Destiny”. One of the key drivers behind the rise and fall of the short but influential Indian intervention was the complex interplay between Nehru’s normative world view (in which Antarctica figured in conjunction with a host of other considerations such as disarmament) and a labyrinth of domestic and external geopolitical compulsions that unfolded during the tumultuous decade of 1950s and early 1960s.
Acknowledgements
This author is grateful to the director general of National Archives of India, New Delhi, its diligent staff and research team for allowing me access to and use of material for writing this research report.
Notes
1 Dodds, “Post-colonial Antarctica”; Dodds, Geopolitics in Antarctica; Howkins, “Frozen Empires: A History of the Antarctic Sovereignty Dispute Between Britain, Argentina, and Chile”; Howkins, “Defending Polar Empire”.
2 Dodds, “Post-colonial Antarctica”.
3 Ibid.
4 Gonslaves, “Oral History Record of Ambassador Eric Gonslaves.”
5 Ibid.
6 Nehru, “Tryst with Destiny.”
7 Nehru, “Tryst with Destiny.”
8 Nehru, Discovery of India.
9 Ibid.
10 Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, A Biography.
11 Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy, 283.
12 Nehru Cited in Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, A Biography, vol. II, 43.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Chaturvedi, Dawning of Antarctica: A Geopolitical Analysis, 355.
16 Dodds, “Post-colonial Engagement,” 65.
17 Ibid.
18 Menon, Disarmament.
19 United Nations General Assembly, 1984.
20 MEA, Government of India, 1956a.
21 Ibid.,10.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
25 MEA, Government of India, 1956b.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 MEA, Government of India, 1956c.
32 Ibid. It is worth noting that Chile’s asserted rights in Antarctica were very much disputed by both Argentina and UK competing claims and the already declared non-recognition of any claims by the US and USSR. And of course, the UK made application to the ICJ against Chilean and Argentinian territorial assertions at this time.
33 Nehru, “Speech at the UPCC Meeting Sitapur,” The National Herald, August 21, 1955.
34 MEA, Government of India, 1956d.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 MEA, Government of India, 1956e.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid.
42 MEA, Government of India, 1956f. We may note in passing that nearly two weeks before Ambassador Raghavan had sent this telegram (dated March 29, 1956) to MEA, New Delhi, the International Court of Justice passed its order on “Antarctica Case” (United Kingdom v. Argentina) on March 16, 1956: “… the Court finds that it has not before it any acceptance by the Government of Argentina of the jurisdiction of the Court to deal with the dispute which is the subject of the Application submitted to it by the United Kingdom Government and therefore it can take no further steps upon this Application … THE COURT order that the case shall be removed from the list.
43 MEA, Government of India, 1956g.
44 Rajya Sabha (The Upper House), 1956.
45 MEA, Government of India, 1956h. This telegram dated September 5, 1956, stated that, “this telegram will not be distributed outside Indian Government Departments or Headquarters or retransmitted even in cipher other than OTP without being paraphrased.”
46 MEA, Government of India, 1956i.
47 MEA, Government of India, 1956j.
48 MEA, Government of India, 1956k.
49 MEA, Government of India, 1956L.
50 Ibid.
51 MEA, Government of India, 1956M.
52 Howkins, “Defending Polar Empire.”
53 Chaturvedi, “India and Antarctica: Towards Post-Colonial Engagement.”
54 Howkins, 2008, 40.
55 Eden, “Environmental Issues: Nature Versus the Environment?” 82.
56 Cited in Ahluwalia, “The Antarctic Treaty: Should India Become a Party to it?” 474.
57 Reddy and Damodaran, Krishna Menon: Selected Speeches at the United Nations III; Disarmament.
58 Menon, Statement in the First Committee of the General Assembly.
59 Sikri, Challenge and Strategy.
60 Beck, “India in Antarctica, Science-and-Politics-on Ice.”
61 Cited in Dey, “India in Antarctica: Perspectives, Programmes and Achievements,” 175.