Abstract
It was only after the end of the Cold War and structural changes in international political order that India started to look at Saudi Arabia differently, and a meaningful shift towards the kingdom began in 2001 when then foreign minister Jaswant Singh visited Riyadh and met with senior Saudi leaders. This was the shift that gave momentum to bilateral relations for over a decade when trade and commerce and energy security became the mainstay in Indo-Saudi ties.
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Notes
- 1.
The treatment of Hindus as people of the book is complicated. Historically Muslim dynasties in India treated them as dhimmis primarily due to political and administrative considerations but despite this, the ulema has refused to accept them as People of the Book due to theological incompatibility between the Abrahamic faith and polytheistic Hinduism.
- 2.
The first Majlis al-Shura with a four-year term was established in 1993 and 30 female members were appointed only in 2013 when the strength of the council was increased from 120 to 150.
- 3.
However, this was not the first time a serving police officer was appointed as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and in 1968 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the then Director General of Tamil Nadu Police T. T. P. Abdullah to Riyadh and he was renominated in May 1981 for another term.
- 4.
In the past, the Congress party has been accused of appeasing the Muslim population for electoral considerations.
- 5.
Accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September 2017, Modi visited the Sidi Saiyyed Mosque in September 2017, built in 1573. This was the first time Modi had visited a mosque in India as prime minister (Amrita Ray 2017).
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Kumaraswamy, P.R., Quamar, M.M. (2019). The Shift. In: India's Saudi Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0794-2_7
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