The Indian Foreign Policy: A Strategic Critique

Abstract

Historically, the sub-continent was a world in itself where empires were raised by the invaders of Hindustan for a millennium. The last was the British Indian Empire. The Hindu consciousness outlived these empires through an impersonal dissociation to preserve its consciousness, culture, value system and worldview. Nevertheless, the legacies of the invaders remain. The Indian foreign policy is the strategic demonstration of the British imperial foreign policy legacy to establish hegemony in South Asia. In its operational expression, India within and without has gone through occupations, annexations, wars and the fomenting of ethnic and sectarian troubles along with the secessionist insurgencies in the neighbouring countries. America is India’s strategic partner in its pursuit of South Asian hegemony. The post 9/11 Indo-US nuclear agreement was the beginning of this formal global partnership. It has since expanded into an Indo-US Entente over the last two decades. Meanwhile, the world has transitioned to the Great Power competition with China squared-off against America and India. Pakistan has opened the strategic door for Russia by initiating a New Frontier Policy. Russia in the perception of Pakistan is a strategic partner across the Amu River. The New Frontier Policy is to the unease of Anglo-Saxons. China, Pakistan and Russia are upgrading ties, as the New Great Game continues unfolding with the twists added by the annexation of Kashmir, the Citizenship Act and Reorganization Order, the Sino-Indian clashes and Covid-19.