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The Indian State and Its Foreign Relations

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India’s Foreign Policy and Economic Challenges

Part of the book series: Global Power Shift ((GLOBAL))

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Abstract

This chapter analyses the continuity in India’s foreign policy over the decades, taking into account the structural and ideological origins and development of the Indian state. The ideas and practices introduced during British colonial domination provided the basis for the construction of the Nehruvian ‘socialistic’ state. Non-alignment perfectly suited the necessities of the newly independent state and remained the main focus of India’s foreign policy even after the end of the Cold War. More recently, the rise to power of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the transition to a Hindu-nation-state brought about an increased emphasis on India’s profile as a world power and a major actor in global capitalism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Literature on the domestic dimension of foreign policy in the Indian context is discussed by Basu (2016) with reference to Bandyopadhyaya (1979), Appadorai (1981), Tharoor (1982), Kapur (1994) and Jha (2002). Also see Dubey (2012).

  2. 2.

    See, for instance, Das Gupta’s (2011) discussion of tribal authority systems in Chotanagpur.

  3. 3.

    Emphasis in the original.

  4. 4.

    For instance, Sanskrit is described as a superior language for current scientific and technological purposes like computer programming (Scroll, 2015), while cow urine is supposed to neutralize Covid-19 (The Hindu, 2020).

  5. 5.

    Similarly, there seems to be a disconnect between domestic anti-Muslim policies and friendly relations with Muslim countries of the Middle East.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Italian Institute of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Mario Prayer

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Silvio Beretta

  2. Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Axel Berkofsky

  3. Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Giuseppe Iannini

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Prayer, M. (2023). The Indian State and Its Foreign Relations. In: Beretta, S., Berkofsky, A., Iannini, G. (eds) India’s Foreign Policy and Economic Challenges. Global Power Shift. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20270-4_3

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