Describe role of India in nam during cold war?
Answers
Role of India during the cold war was very limited. As the two superpowers tried to divide the world into two camps, India chose to stay neutral since beginning of cold war. USA and USSR fought for influence in middle east and south Asia. Pakistan was an ally of USA and received Billion's in aid in form of food supplies and military equipments from USA to hault the spread of communism in Afghanistan. USSR needed its influence to counter USA , so India tilted towards soviet union for military aid in 1971 India Pakistan war. Soviet union supplied India with military equipments throughout the cold war. Almost 70% of India's military equipments are from former soviet union or russian federation. Even now India has been largest importer of Russian military exports. Apart from that India didnt had any significant role in the cold war. Together with south Africa and Yugoslavia and several other countries India started the non alignment movement which comprised of countries which chose to be neutral in the cold war.
India and other NAM countries acted as the third world in during the cold war. NAM stands for Non-Alignment movement which was created by Yugoslavia's President, Josip Broz Tito, India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's second President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah, and Indonesia's first President, Sukarno.
As non-alignment grew into a popular international movement, countries of various different political systems and interests joined it.
The policy of staying away from alliances was not considered isolationism or neutrality. Non-alignment was not isolationism since isolationism means remaining aloof from world affairs. Isolationism sums up the foreign policy of the US from the American War of Independence in 1787 up to the beginning of the First World War.
Non-alignment was also not neutrality. Neutrality refers principally to a policy of staying out of war. States practicing neutrality are not required to help end a war. They do not get involved in wars and do not take any position on the appropriateness or morality of war. Non-aligned states, including India, were actually involved in wars for various reasons. They also worked to prevent war between others and tried to end wars that had broken out.
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