Foreign policy of a nation always has to be seen through the prism of time period, history, and geography of a country. The foreign policy of independent India starts with the decolonisation of India in 1947. To understand the foreign policy of India, we need to understand the politics of the world first.

After the Second World War ended in 1945, the world got divided into two superpower blocs, viz., the US bloc and the USSR bloc, making the world bipolar. With the end of the Second World War, the existence of the world was in danger as countries went nuclear and were jingoistic. To promote harmony between countries and reduce armed conflicts, the United Nations was established in 1945. The establishment of the United Nations made direct military conflicts between two blocs difficult. Hence, this gave rise to a new concept called the Cold War between the US bloc and the USSR bloc.

The Cold War is neither war nor peace. It was maintaining the balance of power between two blocs by seeking support from different countries for their respective blocs. The ideology of the US bloc was capitalism, while the ideology of the USSR bloc was communism and socialism. The capitalist-minded countries joined the US bloc, while the communist and socialist-minded countries joined the USSR bloc. Both these blocs gave higher priority to their military construction and helped their allies in military conflicts. It was nothing but mutually assured destruction. 

India took birth during such a situation when the world was fighting the Cold War. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of India. As the world was divided into two blocs, Nehru had the option to either join the US bloc or the USSR bloc. Nehru knew the problems of newly born India. India was recently decolonized, which was suffering from famine, a bankrupt economy, few natural resources, less technology, and uncertain boundaries. Nehru said the history of India was the fight against imperialism and colonialism. He thought joining any of the two blocs would compromise India’s sovereignty as the US bloc demanded capitalism and the USSR bloc demanded communism. Hence, he decided to stay away from both the blocs and launched a new movement called the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The core of the Non-Aligned Movement was sovereignty and democracy. Nehru’s international stature made all the decolonized countries join the Non-Aligned Movement, which came to be called third world countries, and NAM emerged as the third force in the world. The ideological neutrality was propounded by India. NAM boosted India’s image internationally. The ideology of NAM was to oppose colonialism, imperialism, and maintain world peace.

Domestically, India had two questions: whether to give more priority to economic reconstruction or military reconstruction. As a lesson from the two world wars that made countries involve in military conflicts, Nehru gave higher priority to economic reconstruction over military reconstruction. Economic reconstruction was necessary for India as the nation’s economy was bankrupt, and people were dying out of hunger. Hence, Nehru laid the foundations for a self-sufficient India by promoting agriculture and industrialization.

Unexpectedly, in 1962, India witnessed Chinese aggression. India was weak in defending its borders as the nation was militarily not strong, and this led to criticism of Nehru’s Non-Aligned Movement. Indian think tanks asked Nehru to abandon NAM and concentrate on military reconstruction. But Nehru thought it was not right for India to abandon NAM, which was created by India. And he knew prioritizing military over economy would turn disastrous for a poor nation like India. Shocked and deeply pained by Chinese aggression, Nehru declared that India was surrounded by hostile countries, and our security was at stake. Hence, he came up with a new idea, equal priority to economic reconstruction and military reconstruction. While the two blocs in the world chose military reconstruction over economic reconstruction, India chose equal priority to both economic and military. This led to the modernization of the Indian military.

Nehru died in 1964, and Lal Bahadur Shastri took over as the Prime Minister of India. Shastri didn’t enjoy much international stature. However, the military modernization that started in 1962 gave India an upper hand against Pakistan in the 1965 war. Though the status quo was maintained across borders after the war, the war gave a psychological boost to India. Shastri died in 1964.

Indira Gandhi succeeded Shastri. She brought drastic changes and radical shift to India’s policies. While Nehru believed in idealism, Indira Gandhi believed in realism. Idealism preached world is a good place and everybody in the world is peaceful which was practically impossible. Realism believed in sharpness and alertness and thought world is a hostile place and nation’s security is a necessity. She brought unprecedented changes in military and proved what India should be and what India is! With the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, India emerged as the regional hegemony of South Asia. India, which was perceived as a weak nation after 1962 war, proved to be a mighty nation to its neighbors (mainly Pakistan and China) and South Asian countries after outright military victory in 1971 war.

Indira Gandhi made East Pakistani crisis an international issue. She requested the US to intervene in East Pakistan and stop genocide but America refused. Her next option was the USSR which agreed to help India. But she made it clear that India will not be a part of the USSR bloc after seeking support. She achieved a diplomatic masterstroke by signing “Friendship and Cooperation Treaty” with the USSR.

Meanwhile, in 1960s, China performed nuclear test. As there was a perceived threat from China, PM Indira Gandhi advised Indian scientists to develop nuclear weapon. India performed its first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974. Pakistan also went nuclear in 1980s. This made all three nations viz., India, Pakistan and China nuclear capable. Hence, to make India more powerful in nuclear technology, next PM Rajiv Gandhi gave green signal to powerful nuclear weapon that materialized during Prime ministership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998.

Internationally, the world politics was taking a new turn which ultimately ended the Cold War between the US bloc and the USSR bloc with the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. This shifted world politics from bipolar to unipolar with the emergence of the US as the single superpower in the world. The US indirectly gave ultimatum to the world either to support the US or be its enemy. The countries like Iran, North Korea that refused to join the US went into crisis due to political conspiracy. Domestically, in India, the worst economic crisis hit the nation. India thought supporting the US was a better idea and liberalized its economy in 1991. The relations with the US grew stronger since 1991 that materialized and reached its peak during Indo-US nuclear agreement of 2008. India’s relations with the allies of the US viz., Japan, Australia, South Korea, Vietnam, Fiji etc. improved diplomatic and trade relations.

The incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently focusing on commercial diplomacy, trade and commerce. Modi’s two policies have greater significance. One is military to play crucial role in foreign policy and the other is the shift from ideology to ideas. Modi is not stuck on ideologies but he is focusing on new ideas like Make in India, Digital India and Swacch Bharat. Only time has to answer the effectiveness of these ideas.