Imperialism, the Third World and the Fundamental Continuities in Indian Foreign Policy

Discussions of contemporary Indian foreign policy have tended to highlight a narrative of rupture, focusing particularly on the actions of the BJP-led governments in the 21st century. This article challenges that narrative by arguing for an understanding of postcolonial Indian foreign policy as one characterized by a fundamental continuity shaped by a dynamic imperialist system. Situating the Indian state’s various strategic turns over the decades in this framework enables us to understand that far from exemplifying either some kind of principled ideological inflexibility or a dithering incompetence, the maneuvers were in fact based on the calculations of a fairly well-developed national bourgeoisie that strove to protect its interests in the global capitalist arena. This essay is an attempt to illustrate the larger argument through the prism of the ‘Third World’, an idea once regarded as a central plank of Indian foreign policy but now relegated to its dusty archives.