India's diplomatic journey since independence has evolved from principled non-alignment to pragmatic multi-alignment, driven by a growing economic self-reliance and a strategic approach to global engagement.
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August 15, 1947. For Indians, this is a
sacred date. After centuries of foreign
rule, we were free. Free to make our own
decisions. Free to make our own
mistakes. Free to chart our own destiny.
But for the outside world, this was a
day of suspicion. Here was a country, a
new country, a broken economy, a bruised
people, and a partition geography. Would
it be able to survive, let alone thrive?
Decades later, I think we have a clear
answer. And yes, it took time. We had to
tweak our economic policy. We had to
rethink our social justice platform. But
in one area, we hit the ground running
and that is diplomacy. On the world
stage, India walked in with purpose and principles.
principles.
Right after independence, we got a knock
on our door. On the other side was the
Cold War, the cutthroat ideological
battle of the 20th century, the US-led
capitalist block and the Sovietled
communist block. Countries around the
world were picking sides, but India's
response, thanks for the invite, but
we'll stay out of it. Thus was born the
nonaligned movement or NAM,
India's RSVP to the cold war. You can
trace its roots to before independence.
In March 1947, Javahar Lal Nehu hosted a
conference in New Delhi, the Asian
Relations Conference. It was attended by
28 Asian countries. The idea was to
foster unity within the continent. After
becoming prime minister, Nu continued
this mission, but he added one more
goal. Along with unity, he wanted
neutrality. He wanted to keep Asia out
of the cold war.
In 1955, another conference was held to
this end, the Bandong Conference in
Indonesia. India played a key role in
organizing this gathering. And this
time, it wasn't just Asia. Countries
from Africa attended as well 29
countries representing more than half of
the global population.
Such conferences led to the
establishment of NAM.
Of course, this policy had many critics.
Some called it fence sitting, others
called it isolationist. But the Indian
leadership was very clear in its mind.
They wanted to be players not pawns.
This thinking dominated Indian diplomacy
in the 1950s.
But this thinking also had a problem. It
was based on principles, not pragmatism.
In the 1950s, India tried to become a
peacemaker. We brokered talks during the
Korean War. We advocated for communist
China. We spoke out against the
tripartite aggression on Egypt.
All of this gave India the moral high
ground. We were seen as the voice of justice.
justice.
But like I said, pragmatism was missing.
And the 1960s gave us a rude reality
check. India's neighborhood policy
collapsed in this decade. Two of our
neighbors attacked us. China in 1962 and
Pakistan in 1965. All that neighborly
cooperation came to not
against China. We suffered a humiliating
defeat. But against Pakistan, we
prevailed. Those two wars had an impact
on Indian diplomacy. We realized that
principles earn you praise but not
protection. And India was still reeling
from the impact of colonization. Our
economy had been de-industrialized. Our
agriculture was in tatters. So
naturally, we were dependent on others.
In the 1960s, India used to import food.
Every year, we bought 10 to 11 million
tons of wheat. We also depended on
foreign aid. The period from 1955 to
1965 is considered the peak. Millions of
dollars flowed into India for health
programs, for rural education, for
family planning, a whole lot of things.
And this foreign dependence challenged
our non-alignment.
The 1960s is proof of that. The Vietnam
war was heating up in this decade. India
was a staunch critic of that war. But we
also needed US aid. So Washington
leveraged it. They pressured New Delhi
to scale down our criticism.
So the 1960s was a decade of
realization, a sort of reality check for
Indian diplomacy. And we learned our
lessons because in the 1970s we injected
a dose of realism.
First came the green revolution. India
upped its agricultural productivity. By
the end of the decade, we became
self-sufficient in food grains. No more
foreign dependence. In 1971, we also
signed a treaty of friendship with the
Soviet Union. It was arguably India's
most significant diplomatic agreement of
the last century and it was rooted in
realism. That same year, the US was
cozying up to China. Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger secretly traveled to
Beijing. At our eastern border, a crisis
was brewing. Pakistan was cracking down
on ethnic Bengalies. Thousands were
flooding into India as refugees.
Neutrality and non-alignment would not
have solved these crises. So, India
chose realism. The treaty with Moscow
did dilute our non-alignment. It gave us
victory in 1971.
It helped India liberate Bangladesh.
And that whole decade was marked by
Delhi Moscow warmth. We bought all kinds
of weapons from them. Fighter jets,
support ships, tanks, and surfaceto-air
missiles. Our trade nearly double. It
was $460 million in 1973. It reached 830
million by 1975.
This decade also saw the rise of space
cooperation. We launched our first
satellite in 1975. It was launched
aboard a Russian rocket by the Soviets.
In many ways, the stars align for this
partnership. The Soviets were fighting
with China. China was warming up to
America. America wanted nothing to do
with India. So India and the Soviets
banded up. This worked in our favor in
the 1970s. It established India as the
most powerful country in South Asia. In
the next decade, the 1980s, we exercised
that power. India played a key role in
setting up SARKC. SARKC is the South
Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation. Think of it as ASEAN for
South Asia. This group was set up in
1985. The idea was to foster unity in
the region. Of course, India anchored
this group. It confirmed our central
role in South Asia.
But something happened in the second
half of that decade that challenged
Indian centrality down south in Sri
Lanka. The country was gripped by a
bloody civil war. Sri Lankan Tamils were
fighting for a separate country. India
did have a stake in this fight. We had
millions of ethnic Tamils in the south.
Many of them sympathized with their
peers in Sri Lanka. So New Delhi decided
to intervene.
In 1987, the Indo Sri Lankan Accord was
signed. Its main goal was to end the
civil war. And to this end, India
deployed soldiers to the island. The IPKF,
IPKF,
the Indian peacekeeping force was
deployed. As the name suggests, our job
was to keep the peace, not to engage
either side. But the IPKF eventually got
dragged into fighting Tamil separatists.
We fought numerous bloody battles with
them. And eventually in 1990, we pulled
out. It remains one of India's biggest
diplomatic blunders.
The 1980s was marked by another event
too. A rediscovery of non-alignment.
After decades, our ties with China were
improving. The Cold War seemed to be
ending. The Russians were stuck in
Afghanistan. So, New Delhi began
exploring its options. We began warming
up to the Americans again. And this
reset was led by then Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi. He visited the US in 1985.
Then he visited China in 1988. Both
trips set the stage for a new chapter in
Indian diplomacy, a postcold war
strategy for the 1990s.
This decade was marked by uncharted
territories, both for our economy and
our diplomacy. In some ways they were
linked. The reforms of 1991 tried to
integrate India with the global economy
and for that you had to talk to more
countries. You needed more partnerships.
Plus the Soviet Union was gone. India
had lost a very powerful partner. So we
needed alternatives.
Enter the look east policy of 1992.
Southeast Asia was growing rapidly at
that time. Some of those countries were
called Asian tigers. That's how fast
they were growing. So in 1992, India
became a dialogue partner of ASEAN. The
same year, we did something unthinkable.
We opened an embassy in Tel Aviv. For
decades, New Delhi had championed the
Palestinian cause. Yes, secret ties with
Israel did exist, but in 1992, they came
out in the open, and since then, there's
been no looking back. Our ties with the
US were also improving, but that reset
was threatened by the nuclear test of 1998.
1998.
India exploded nuclear bombs in the
state of Rajasthan. The US responded
with sanctions. Months later, Pakistan
exploded their own bombs, thus taking us
to dangerous threat levels. As India
entered the 2000s, the region was
becoming a dangerous place. Two nuclear
armed neighbors, no superpower to back
us, and an economy under sanctions. But
as always, we found a way. India's
diplomacy in the 2000s was dominated by
two goals. The first was a reset with
America. I mean, we had no choice. The
US was the unquestionable superpower.
You had to play nice with them. The
second goal was investing in
multilateral forums. The US reset went
along nicely. Most of the sanctions were
lifted by 2001. After that, we chased a
nuclear deal with the Americans.
Counterterrorism was a big factor in
this reset. Both countries had suffered
terror attacks. The US had suffered on
9/11. India had suffered on 2611. The
shared trauma made both countries
realize something. They were fighting
the same enemy. But even as the US ties
deepened, India was not going allin. The
legacy of non-alignment remained.
Of course, Russia was a shadow of its
former self. So we looked elsewhere at
blocks. In 2006, the foreign ministers
of Brazil, Russia, India, and China met
in New York. This laid the foundation of
bricks. Their first official summit came
in 2009.
So as we entered the 2010s, India was
well placed. Our economy was booming.
Our diplomacy was diversified. Clearly,
it was India's time to shine. The
question was, would we seize the moment?
And the last decade answered that
question. We most definitely did. India
signs strategic partnerships and
agreements with some 14 countries with
Israel and the UAE with Japan and South
Korea with Usbekistan and Tajikistan. It
tells you how wide the engagement has
been. The last decade also sharpened the
rivalry with China. Xi Jinping took over
as president in 2013. He is relentlessly
chasing Chinese supremacy and this puts
China on a collision path with India. We
saw that in 2017.
Indian and Chinese soldiers faced off in
Dhlam. The standoff lasted over 70 days.
Which brings us to the ongoing decade,
the 2020s.
We are seeing India take its rightful
place in the world. The vision is to
become a Vishwa Bandhu, meaning a friend
to all. We have moved from non-alignment
to multi-alignment. We are in the Quad
with America. We are also a founding
member of bricks with China. We are
invited to the G7 every year. Yet we
lead the global south. We are building
port infrastructure in Iran. But we are
also buying weapons from Israel. We
acquire warships from Russia. Yet we can
visit Ukraine and call for peace.
This has been the feature of India's new
diplomacy. Be in every room but only in
your corner.
And this is a big shift from the past.
Earlier India's diplomacy was a
balancing act. Now we are the balance.
And to achieve that India has changed
one crucial thing. We have reduced
foreign dependence. That's the mistake
that we made in the 20th century. We
wanted an independent foreign policy,
but our economy could not support it.
Decades later, we are in a position to
correct that. Today, we don't depend on
foreign aid. On the contrary, we are a
global donor. Since the year 2000, India
has donated to 65 countries. The amount
is more than 48 billion. During the
pandemic, India became a pharmacy to the
world. We sent vaccines to 160
countries. In the neighborhood, we are a
first responder. Whether it's
earthquakes or tsunamis or a pirate
attack, India is the first to respond.
In 1947, the world looked at us with
doubt. Today, they look at us with hope.
because it is wise.
I'm sure more chapters will be written
in India's diplomatic books, but the
story so far has been riveting. [Music]
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