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Unit 3: Cultural and Social Environment

Territorial Integrity notes

A Desire to have a grand Indian nation motivated some of the declarations of the Indian National
Congress as regards its foreign policy. For example, whereas in 1885 the Indian National
Congress opposed the annexation of Upper Burma with British India, in late 1920s it opposed
the de-annexation of Burma from British India. By this time the foreign policy ideas of the Indian
National Congress, the vanguard of Indian freedom struggle, looked towards a greater Indian
nationhood.
3.1.9 religion and religious Groups

The role of religion in India’s foreign policy cannot be exaggerated. Hindus claim to be the most
tolerant of all religious groups. But this claim has been continuously shattered, resulting in certain
adverse reactions among various nations. Secondly, India has to come to grapple with the fact
that Hinduism is more or less a single nation religion, whereas Islam, Christianity and Buddhism
are religions practiced and encouraged in many and diverse nations. The view the practitioners
of other religions hold regarding Hinduism and Hindus certainly influences the foreign policy
of these nations towards India. India’s insistence on its secular credentials may be appreciated
in the academic circles all over the world, but India continues to be a Hindu-majority nation, a
Hindu nation, in the minds of lay Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists all over the world. The
foreign policy formulations of other nations do not fail to recognize that India is a Hindu nation,
despite India’s claims to the contrary. Not only the fundamentalist turn in Islamic countries but
also the conservative orientations in the Christian West look at the alliance between the New Age
Movements and Hinduism with great suspicion.

Religion and Cultural as Vehicles of Foreign Policy

Culture has been a great tool and strength of India’s foreign policy right from its independence
in 1947. However, this culture policy has never touched the hearts of the ordinary men and
women in other nations. Only a small number of people in the western societies (who could
be extra ordinary people, but without much impact on foreign policy administrators in those
nations) found Indian culture attractive. More often than not, culture was seen closely associated
with religion, and other social systems such as marriage and eating habits, and this association
has brought adverse notices in the minds of the vast majority of people in other nations. India’s
culture policy was aimed at the people of Hindu diaspora on the one hand, and at the academically
oriented and protest minded fringes of other nations, on the other. The policy was successful in
revitalizing the cultural moorings of the diaspora, but it did not derive any benefit from the
latter. Even the traditionally friendly southeast Asian Buddhist nations (a friendship based on an
appreciation of and admiration for the Hindu roots of Buddhism) soon preferred an economic
orientation in their relations. Culture and religion still remain a great possibility, if India could
establish a much better image for its internal affairs and economic capability. It is often forgotten
that Hinduism and Buddhism are two distinct religions and that the Buddhist masses in the
Buddhist nations may look at the Hindus and Hinduism entirely from a different angle.

Notes Culture has been a great tool and strength of India’s foreign policy right from
its independence in 1947.

Task Determine the approximate of languages spoken and studied in India.

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