Geopolitics & World-affairs

India's Foreign Policy is being driven by Trade and Economic ties

After the end of the Second world war in 1945, the decolonization of the world began due to the rise of nationalism among the population of different countries. India was among them.

India achieved independence from the conceived British raj in 1947 and Nehru became the first prime minister of Independent India. The nation was divided into two states due to the two-nation theory which was adopted by the British and some of the Indian leaders.

The concept of the two-nation theory was propagated by "Sir Syed Ahmed Khan" and accepted by the British empire to create a nation that was beneficial for them to stop Soviet Union's progress to the Indian Ocean region.

They also wanted to relocate the entire Kashmir to Pakistan in order to keep an eye on communist China and unstable Afghanistan.

After having fractured and religiously hostile nations at its neighbors India's foreign policy has been influenced by outside players like the USA, UK, and the USSR. And after the end of WWII, a new era began that divided the world into two different blocks. The Capitalist USA led one block and the communist Soviet Union led the other. That was the beginning of the era of the new proxy and shadow war, popularly known as the "Cold War".

During the cold war, India was reluctant to join any of the above groups because India's foreign policy was driven by the people who fought for the country's independence against the mighty British empire. To maintain a neutral foreign policy India created a new bloc called "Non-Aligned-Movement".

The so-called non-alignment group was created by five world leaders. The founding fathers of the Non-aligned movement were: "Sukarno of Indonesia, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana". Their actions were known as 'The Initiative of Five'.

This Non-Aligned policy of India hurt India's interest in the region and all around the world. The world looked at India from the eye of the Soviets. The western world was suspicious about the Indian relationship with Soviet blocks. That cost India in the 1962 Indo-China war but it became beneficial for India in the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war.

Everything changes and took shape in different ways after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991. 1991 was the water shade moment for India and for the world. A new world order came into existence that gives birth to the unilateral world led by the capitalist USA.
From that point, Indian Foreign Policy changes completely.

So, What is driving India's Foreign Policy? and in today's perspective what are the factors affecting India's relationship with other world power?

After 1991 Indian foreign policy was mainly driven by economic ties and trade with other countries. Because After 1991 India adopted LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization) frameworks to improve the outcome of its economy.

Indian economy grew at a phenomenal rate after the LPG policy but it was hit by the global recession that was generated by the USA in 2008, it achieved its zenith after Prime minister Narendra Modi's spectacular economic reforms regarding direct benefit transfer to the people and several socioeconomic reforms.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Indian economy. Indian economy's dilapidated condition during 1991 forced India to the International Monetary Fund. That's why the Indian government was forced to accept the Capitalistic Keynesian theory to privatize the Indian economy and India was forced to end the rigid communistic license raj system in the Indian manufacturing sector.

1991 was a watershed moment for the world and India, in the same way, 2020 to 2021 has become a phase in which the world economic outlook overturn the concept of the world economy that changes global diplomacy and international relation between countries because of the spread of Covid-19 and Russia's special military action against Ukraine (Russia's invasion of Ukraine).

These two events caused a massive surge in energy costs and almost raved the world distribution network. Alongside these two events, it also created grain shortages around the world.

Here in this case neutral Indian diplomacy saved the Indian economy and the world. After the Russian invasion west put so-called sanctions on Russian energy along with a price cap on its crude oil, as a result of that Russia agreed to deliver crude oil at a discounted rate of 25-30%. India enjoyed that offer and still enjoying it even after severe pressure from western countries.

India shoots down the western country's frivolous attempt and decided to run its economy on its own terms. West, especially the United States put colossal pressure on India not to buy Russian oil but India decided to stand with its old friend rejecting any alluring attempt offered by any charlatan turned friend.

India is still buying Russian oil and importing it to countries in need. Sharp rise in oil shipments changes Indian export map. India is even exporting oil to its allies in Europe who opposed Russian oil, the Netherlands is among them. The country has become India's 3rd largest export destination after the USA and UAE.

India's brave geopolitical move has also helped India to earn record braking Forex reserve for the country. Where India's neighboring countries are struggling to maintain their economy due to their frivolous economic policy therein India's forex reserve is growing every single day, it is at $564 billion according to the ministry of finance.

India has also drawn record-breaking Foreign direct investment which stands at $100 billion, the highest in India's history. The country also drew $100 billion in remittances.

According to some IMF and World Bank, India is the bright star in the gloomy-looking pitch-black sky.

How has the World reacted and is reacting to India's move?

At inception, The western world chooses to blackmail India by using its coercive weapon of economic sanctions. But later they come to senses when they realized that without India's economy the world economy will collapse totally because they have already isolated mineral-rich Russia from the world economy.

After they lose their decisive mind game against India's foreign policy they choose to fight the unequal battle using self-appointed world-ranking givers, basically pressure groups. The west also tried to use media barons to manufacture pressure on India using so-called democratic rights and liberalization of social reforms.

They tried their every card including self-righteous democratic thinkers within India and Indian society by manipulating their thoughts using soft techniques, examples- news editorials by the so-called specialists. But they failed awkwardly and they bite the dust when India blunt their every attack using truth bomb and truthful facts.

Indian foreign policy which was based on lame Nehruvian ideology changed its course and direction after S.Jaishankar became the foreign minister of India. He is running India's foreign policy based on realism and the practicality of the current situation.

Foreign policy is all about relationship building based on history and culture. It takes time to reach its zenith. Indian foreign policy is not 75 years old it's thousands of years old. India's foreign relation is been going on since the Indus valley civilization. It has not started abruptly it started smoothly after building an economical relationship with the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations.