describe the important changes that took place in India foreign policy from 1980
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Continuity and Change in India's Foreign Policy
May 2014
DOI: 10.1142/9789814566582_0005
In book: Globalization, Development and Security in Asia (pp.75-93)
Authors:
Rohan Mukherjee
11.36Yale-NUS College
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On the 24th of July 1991, Dr. Manmohan Singh — then India’s Finance Minister — presented in the annual budget speech to Parliament a plan for the comprehensive overhauling and liberalization of the Indian economy. During the preceding two years, India had rapidly approached the brink of an economic crisis, facing an unprecedented and severe shortage of foreign exchange reserves, a severely devalued currency, low investor confidence, a high fiscal deficit, and double-digit inflation. In announcing a sweeping reform program intended to significantly reduce government control over the economy, Dr. Singh at the end of his budget speech quoted Victor Hugo: “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come,” he said. “I suggest to this august House that the emergence of India as a major eco-nomic power in the world happens to be one such idea” (Government of India, 1991).These words turned out to be prophetic. Over the next two decades, Indian citizens witnessed their lives and prospects improve remarkably, with the economy growing at a rapid clip. As trade and financial integration with global markets expanded, the effects were felt in almost all corners of society. Externally, India began to gain the attention of the great powers of the post-Cold War world, especially the United States and China. A more confident India began developing new strategic partnerships with a host of nations previously off Delhi’s radar. By the new millennium, India was invited to the high table at key multilateral groupings, notably in the World Trade Vol-I_b1691_Ch-04.indd 75Vol-I_b1691_Ch-04.indd 75 2/14/2014 9:41:45 AM2/14/2014 9:41:45 AM
76 R. Mukherjeeb1691_Vol-I Globalization, Development and Security in AsiaFAOrganization (WTO) and at the United Nations (U.N.) climate change negotiations. In January 2011, India joined the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) for its seventh non-permanent term, and was in the thick of great-power controversy over proposed interventions in Libya and Syria for the next two years.Few observers of Indian diplomacy and foreign policy in the 1940s would have predicted the sheer scale of India’s achievement over the next six decades. In order to comprehend the tremendous changes that have taken place during this time, one must study the evolution of India’s relationships with key actors in its region and in the international system. This chapter focuses on India’s relations with the United States, China, South Asia, and the UNSC. Four major trends reveal themselves. First, with the passing of the Cold War that had necessitated much rhetorical posturing aimed at avoiding alli-ances with the superpowers, Indian foreign policy has shed its moralizing façade and embraced a more overt pragmatism. Second, India’s growing economic power has added significant economic content to its foreign policy, which also contributes to pragmatism. Third, India’s foreign policy is increas-ingly complicated by the fragmentation of its domestic political sphere into a multitude of regional parties that form often-unwieldy coalition governments at the federal level. Finally, India’s approach to the international order estab-lished and dominated by the West has changed from one of enthusiastic endorsement to what one analyst has termed “cautious prudence” — unwill-ing to use force, resort to allies, or effect any significant change abroad; but at the same time profoundly aware of the importance of power in interna-tional relations (Mehta, 2009, p. 230).