Nehru’s Vision of Asian Identity

This article argues that Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of Asian identity was central to his view of India’s foreign policy. His vision enthused many in the last phases of World War II but the seemingly contradictory elements inherent in this vision ensured that it also had its critics within India, Asia and the world. However, by century’s end, the ideational framework that Nehru had so assiduously constructed since 1920 gained meaning in different contexts after Nehru’s demise. The vision of Asian identity that he put together began to inform Asian regional and subregional institutions and organisations. The analytical framework that he evolved, through non-alignment and the Panchsheel principles, presented an alternative to Cold War binaries. As a result, his view of Asian identity had positive implications for issues of conflict management, economic interdependence and community, the maintainence of peace by abjuring military alliances, guarding against the surrender of sovereign rights and, more recently, for a definition of security as human security. At home the task remains to reinvent his vision for a new phase in India’s foreign policy.