Indian Foreign Policy By Vp Dutt Pdf Free Download

[Mireille Duhon]

Thisbook is designed to be used as a text book for University courses but also makes a useful contribution to the burgeoning literature on the subject. One of its key strengths is that it is based on good scholarship and introduces the reader to relevant themes and issues as well as the principal authors and works on Indian foreign policy.

Sagarika's research interests focus on two main areas: (1) International Organisations / The United Nations and the specialised agencies / UNESCO; and (2)South Asian politics / Indian politics and foreign policy. She is the author of The politicization of the United Nations specialized agencies: A case study of UNESCO (1995) and UNESCO and a just world order (2002). She has also authored a number of journal articles on the UN / UNESCO and contributes research papers to BISA / ISA conferences. Her research interests in South Asia have led to the publication of a co-edited volume, South Asian Security: 21st century discourses (2012). Apart from inter-state conflict the book covers human security, energy security, identity and civil conflict, and regional integration. She has recently published a chapter on South Asian security for a Handbook of Governance and Security(2014) published by Edward Elgar. In recent years she has also taken an interest in American foreign policy, especially the pivot to Asia.

Sagarika is currently supervising research/Ph.D. students working on a variety of topics. She is prepared to consider research proposals from prospective students working on the following topics: International Institutions in International Relations, especially the United Nations and its agencies; Nationalism; Postmodern approaches to identity; Human security; Regional security in South Asia; South Asian politics; Indian politics and foreign policy; Gender and development; Human development in developing countries; US foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific.

Sagarika is a member of the International Studies Association (ISA) based in the USA, British International Studies Association (BISA), the Commonwealth Institute (London), the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS), and the United Nations Association (UNA-UK). She participates in their conferences and forums.

Sagarika has recently collaborated with Prof. James Sperling of the University of Akron, USA, and contributed a chapter to J. Sperling (ed), Handbook of governance and security, Cheltenham, U.K. and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2014.

She has also published a book on South Asian security (Routledge, 2012) based on collaboration with academics at Jadavpur University, Kolkata and the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, as well as researchers and academics at various UK, US and Australian universities.

"As India rises and its capacities and capabilities grow, it will naturally contribute more to the world. A civilisational state re-emerging on the world stage and drawing on its heritage will obviously create its own imprint.

i find myself in total agreement with your analysis, and it is certainly hoped that one day EU and US governments will start taking cognises of what their own press is writing about India. And also hoped that their recognition of our problems will not be too late.

Award-winning Indian journalist Barkha Dutt argued in a recent column that the West \u2013 both governments and civil society \u2013 should desist from bringing up India\u2019s democratic backsliding.

To be clear, Dutt is not arguing that everything is hunky-dory when it comes to Indian democracy. Indeed, there can be little doubt on this count. From blatant suppression of dissent to the utilisation of investigative agencies against political opponents to the introduction of deliberately opaque political funding instruments \u2013 if there were a democratic dashboard, a number of indicators would be flashing red.

Instead, she points out two things. One, that Western coverage of Indian issues is often shoddy and routinely regurgitates reflexively Orientalist tropes. And two, that lecturing by Western institutions, state and non-state, tends to backfire. [One might add a third \u2013 that the language of human rights and democracy has often been instrumentalised to promote parochial foreign policy goals, prompting general cynicism about these kinds of interventions.]

\u201CThese growing murmurs about the backsliding of democracy \u2014 polite rebukes from Western governments and strident editorials by Western media \u2014 are having the exact opposite from the intended effect. The more that voices from outside India charge Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government with rolling back freedoms, the stronger he becomes and the less possible it is for us in India to have a sane debate on the matter.\u201D

I can\u2019t possibly agree with Dutt\u2019s prescription, for a number of reasons: Democracies are by definition meant to be open to criticism wherever it comes from. India bills itself as not just a democracy but the \u2018Mother of Democracy\u2019, as we discuss further down in this piece. Much of its pitch to Western partners \u2013 whether national or corporate \u2013 is predicated on its open, democratic environment in contrast to China\u2019s closed, authoritarian one. Many \u2018outsiders\u2019, whatever that term may mean, have brought tremendous value by turning their eye on India, through scholarship, analysis, investment and more.

Moreover, Indians and the Indian state are also comfortable critiquing democratic and human rights concerns in other nations, sometimes as an explicit element of foreign policy \u2013 as with its insistence on Sri Lanka\u2019s 13th Amendment, its support for Madhesis in Nepal, and the underlying logic of the much touted Citizenship Act Amendments that led to the NRC protests a few years ago. And finally, saying \u2018leave it to the Indians\u2019 is complicated at a time when the space for critical commentary in India is narrowing, as we have discussed earlier.

International recognition has played a big part in the domestic brand-building around Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing majoritarian government over the past eight years \u2013 and even before, when, as chief minister of Gujarat, he sold his close connections to to China as a sign of his own personal stature.

Take Modi\u2019s \u2018hug diplomacy\u2019, for example: The approach ensured the prime minister would be photographed with world leaders in a way that ensured India was being treated as an equal, while also emphasizing his personal connection to them. Modi\u2019s embrace of fanfare while abroad \u2013 gathering tens of thousands in a Texas Arena for \u2018Howdy Modi\u2019 or filling out a stadium in Dubai \u2013 serves, in part, the same purpose. The BJP ecosystem regularly pushes content under the broad template of \u2018world leaders praising Modi\u2019 \u2013 indicating that this should be \u201Ca matter of pride for every Indian.\u201D

These efforts to use international recognition to further buttress Modi\u2019s domestic popularity have been most evident over the course of this year in the fanfare created around India\u2019s turn as president of the G20. From a Washington Post report:

\u201CIn the Indian capital, officials have projected a G-20 hologram onto Humayun\u2019s Tomb, the famous Mughal-era monument. In remote states, local leaders have paraded G-20-themed floats during religious festivals. Standardized tests handed out to 10th-graders have come stamped with the \u201CG-20 India\u201D logo, which incorporates a lotus, the symbol of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). And from New Delhi to Mumbai, roads have been blanketed by billboards that block the view of slums while reminding commuters that India, the \u201CMother of Democracy,\u201D is now hosting important world leaders.\u201D

In a report from earlier this year about the popularity of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the capital, Vandita Mishra explains how the BJP\u2019s efforts to project Modi as an international leader have borne fruit.

From a JJ camp in Shalimar Bagh to a South Delhi office and mall, you are likely to hear the same division of political labour: Kejriwal for the provision of quotidian \u201Csuvidhaein\u201D, goods and services made accessible and free \u2014 bijli and paani, mohalla clinic and sarkari school, and free travel in buses for women, not necessarily in that order.

Given this instrumentalisation of Modi\u2019s international statue for domestic purposes, it stands to reason that any challenge to this image internationally would represent a significant weakness. In other words, if Modi\u2019s international image is so important, wouldn\u2019t criticism from abroad be a problem?

Indeed, it is, and the party has treated it as such \u2013 seeking to quickly drown out any news that suggests Modi is not universally praised abroad or has been unsuccessful in the international arena.

That is likely why, for example, the Modi government continues to obfuscate the extent to which Chinese troops are preventing Indian soldiers from accessing land they once patrolled in Ladakh \u2013 since admitting what seems evident to experts and analysts would amount to an admission of failure on the international arena. It is also why the response of many BJP leaders to India\u2019s horrific second-wave of Covid-19 cases \u2013 which came after the party had declared victory over the virus \u2013 involved complaining about unfair coverage, rather than addressing the underlying issues.

The government has taken several steps to address this potential weakness. It lashes out at any critical foreign commentary \u2013 like Rihanna\u2019s tweets on the farmer protests or George Soros\u2019 recent comments \u2013 and has made it clear to other capitals that it will not take kindly to lecturing. It has relied on lobbying efforts as well as the aggressive courting of the Indian diaspora to push its interests abroad. It has also been broadly aided by moves from populist governments all over the world \u2013 including under former US President Donald Trump \u2013 to delegitimise civil society and the press. And it has sought to depict any criticism by Indians abroad as something approaching treason, even though Modi has not been averse to political statements on foreign trips himself.

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