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International Business

notes From the state of being ignored by the US and its allies, in 1980s, India became an orphan in early
1990s. The death of Rajiv Gandhi and the consequent weakening of the Nehru legacy coincided
with the fall of the Soviet Union. India’s preoccupation with preserving its geographical integrity,
with brokering world peace and with the celebration of egalitarian ideals and protest thought had
not led her anywhere. In fact, she is presently facing the hardest of all challenges from within,
from Kashmir. However, people at large have always been behind the leadership in fostering,
preserving, and moulding the geographical integrity of the nation. This was not necessarily a
product of the foreign policy.

At long last, along with fear and despair, India seems to be waking up to face the reality and to
make amends through a foreign turn, a turn which while retaining some clichés yet, is willing to
break new grounds. The evidence for it is seen in the sweeping changes in its economic policies. Its
tilt towards the West, especially towards the India, is more pronounced. And this has infuriated
the leftists and hard-core nationalists within the country.

Did u know? Indian foreign and business policies were always inclined towards Soviet
Union and with its fall, India had a big lacuna to fulfill.

Similarity of Political Institutions: No Guarantee for Recognition

Since its independence in 1947 from Britain, India has tried to follow a foreign policy which
it considered would be truly characteristic of its independence, a policy which would bestow
upon it the status of a big power and preserve its geographic integrity, even as this policy would
lead to an equitable world both for the common man and the poor nations. India offers an
excellent example of how poor nations, full of ambitions and pretensions to leadership, wanted
to manipulate the world around them in their terms by assuming moralistic positions and how
these failed miserably in a world of power politics. India was soon seen to be a staunch apologist
for former Soviet Union. Whereas China with its communist label still intact was and is able to
sail smoothly with the nations of the democratic West, India continues to be at a disadvantage,
proving the point that similarity in the nature of political systems does not necessarily guarantee
success in foreign relations. India is trying to make amends for its “faults” of the past through
a sweeping and dramatic economic turn in its foreign policy content. Will this foreign turn in
economics result also in a real change in the rest of its foreign policy?
Since the advent of the NDA Government in India, there are discernible changes taking place in
Indian foreign policy. Yet one also continues to notice the inflexible and cliché-ridden policies as
in the past.

Nehru’s Idealism and British Legacy as Elements of Indian Foreign Policy

The foreign policy of independent India has been influenced more by Nehru’s idealism and
thinking than by practical ends in the past. The resolutions and declarations of the Congress
leadership in general, and Jawaharlal Nehru in particular, have shaped the contours of Indian
foreign policy. However, the elements of the Indian foreign policy are not totally original. Just
as the Indian Constitution owes several of its essential features to the succeeding proposals
of the British India Government, the current foreign policy, in its various manifestations and
demands, takes its cues from the stated and unstated foreign policy declarations of the British
India government.

Did u know? During the period of British domination, India’s relations with its neighbours
were ultimately determined by the needs of British imperialism.

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