Indian Foreign Policy In 21st Century

[Latisha Gervase]

TheUnited States can and should be a driving force around the world for freedom, human rights, and peace. This does not mean we should turn first to war and violence. Too many times, our first response to a foreign policy problem has been military action. Unilateral military interventions are counterproductive to our strategic goals and prolong violence and suffering. I support working together with the international community to find thoughtful diplomatic solutions for the complex issues facing our world.

I opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and I continue to oppose the broad authorization of military force that has operated as a blank check for military use for 15 years. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I will push for diplomatic solutions, increased foreign assistance, and the need to conduct robust congressional oversight. I support innovative responses to 21st century national security threats.

Rep Ro Khanna on Wednesday was the only member of the House Armed Services Committee to vote against legislation that would authorize an $886 billion military budget for the coming fiscal year, a sum the California Democrat decried as outrageous amid cuts to social spending and attacks on aid programs for vulnerable Americans.

Content from the Brookings Institution India Center is now archived. After seven years of an impactful partnership, as of September 11, 2020, Brookings India is now the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, an independent public policy institution based in India.

In the former, the idealist interpretation notwithstanding, the chief protagonist was exiled after losing his throne to palace intrigue, banishes his wife after regaining the throne, and faces a challenge from his sons. In the latter epic, again the popular notion notwithstanding, a family is torn apart over a property dispute, which leads to a bitter and brutal fratricidal war that decimates the clan. Moreover, in both instances, interests invariably overshadow values which are compromised to achieve realpolitik goals.

Second, assuming for a moment that the one world family might be less dysfunctional than a normal family, there is still the question of who is the head of the family and how power is shared? More importantly, how will disputes be resolved and decisions enforced? Given the patriarchal nature of most Indian families, who does India consider as the leader of the one world family? Alternatively given the emerging multipolar world how will power be shared among the various leaders and centres? Or is the expectation that vasudhaiva kutumbakam can thrive even if it is headless?

Clearly, if India wants to regard the world as one family, then it needs to examine the concept through a realist perspective as well. According to this viewpoint, vasudhaiva kutumbakam is not a peaceful construct but a dysfunctional one with different power centres vying to secure their interests even at the risk of trampling over common values.

Dealing with such a world would require not only the ability to develop common norms to address contentious issues ranging from climate change to cross-border terrorism but also the political, economic, and military prowess to enforce these agreed upon norms. India is developing reasonable skills in norm setting but is still woefully inadequate in contributing to building, supporting and enforcing them.

The concept of vasudhaiva kutumbakam has stood India in good stead. However, New Delhi needs to reinterpret it for the 21st century. That will be the easy part. Developing the political, economic and military wherewithal to implement and enforce the concept will be the real challenge.

Relations between India and the United States date back to India's independence movement and have continued well after independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. Currently, India and the United States enjoy close relations and have deepened collaboration on issues such as counterterrorism and countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.[1]

Gallup's annual World Affairs survey shows India is perceived by Americans as their sixth favorite nation in the world, with 71% of Americans viewing India favorably in 2015,[14] and 70% in 2023.[15] Gallup polls found that 74% of Americans viewed India favorably in 2017,[16] 72% in 2019,[17] 75% in 2020[18] and 77% in 2022.[19] According to a Morning Consult poll conducted in August 2021 after the fall of Afghanistan, 79% of Indians viewed the United States favorably, compared to 10% who viewed the United States unfavorably, the highest percentage out of all 15 major countries surveyed, more favorable than even how most Americans viewed the United States.[20]

The term "Indian", which has been used as an alternative for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for India, thought that he had arrived in the East Indies. This historical misnomer has persisted over the centuries, shaping cultural perceptions and narratives surrounding Native American identity.[21][22][23][24][25][26]

Due to connections between the East India Company and the Thirteen Colonies, many Indians were sent to the latter for slavery or indentured servitude. Today, descendants of such East Indian slaves may have a small percent of DNA from Asian ancestors but it likely falls below the detectable levels for today's DNA tests, as most of the generations since would have been primarily of ethnic African and European ancestry.[28]

Great Britain and France had territories in the Americas as well as the Indian subcontinent. In 1778, when France declared war against Britain, fighting broke out between British and French colonies in India.[29] This marked the beginning of the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Hyder Ali, the Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore, allied himself with the French. From 1780 to 1783, Franco-Mysorean forces fought in several campaigns against the British in western and southern India, in several places such as Mah and Mangalore.[30]

On June 29, with both sides weakened, the British dispatched HMS Medea to surrender, with letters to the French stating the American Revolutionary War was over.[31] The Treaty of Paris was drafted on 30 November 1782, months before the Siege of Cuddalore but news did not reach India until seven months later, due to the delay of communications to India. The treaty was finally signed on 3 September 1783 and was ratified by the U.S. Congress a few months later. Under the terms of the treaty, Britain returned Pondicherry back to the French and Cuddalore was returned to the British.[30] The flag of the East India Company is said to have inspired the Grand Union Flag of 1775, ultimately inspiring the current flag of the United States, as both flags were of the same design.[32] Mysorean rockets were also used in the Battle of Baltimore, and are mentioned in "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States: And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air.[33]

British Army officer Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, who led the British surrender during the Siege of Yorktown, which caused the end of warfare operations in North America during the American Revolution, later went on to serve as Governor-General of India and played a significant role in expanding British control over the subcontinent. His burial site is in the North Indian city of Ghazipur.[34][35]

American Founding Father Aaron Burr had a relationship with an East Indian woman named Mary Emmons, who was most likely from the Indian city of Calcutta. Together, they had two children, including John Pierre Burr.[41][42]

Charlotte White, daughter of Pennsylvania Judge William Augustus Atlee, holds the distinction of being the first American woman appointed as a missionary and sent to a foreign country. Sponsored by the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. she embarked for Calcutta, India, in December 1815.[45][46]

Other American missionaries to India during the pre-British Raj era include: Lyman Jewett, Samuel B. Fairbank, Nathan Brown, John Welsh Dulles, Luther Rice, Samuel Newell, David Oliver Allen, Cynthia Farrar, Henry Richard Hoisington, Samuel Nott, Harriet Newell, George Warren Wood, Miron Winslow, Gordon Hall, Azubah Caroline Condit, Levi Spaulding, George Bowen, Ann Hasseltine Judson, George Boardman, Jeremiah Phillips, and William Arthur Stanton.

The relationships between India in the days of the British Raj and the United States were thick.[47] Swami Vivekananda promoted Yoga and Vedanta in the United States at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, during the World's Fair in 1893. Mark Twain visited India in 1896[48] and described it in his travelogue Following the Equator with both revulsion and attraction before concluding that India was the only foreign land he dreamed about or longed to see again.[49] Regarding India, Americans learned more from English writer Rudyard Kipling.[50] Mahatma Gandhi had an important influence on the philosophy of non-violence promoted by American civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s.[51]

Former American Military Officer and later a prominent figure in the spiritual and philosophical movement of Theosophy Henry Steel Olcott, left New York in December 1878 to relocate the headquarters of the Theosophical Society to India. He and the society arrived in Bombay on February 16, 1879. Olcott's objective was to immerse himself in the culture of India, the birthplace of his spiritual inspiration, the Buddha. The Society's headquarters were established at Adyar, Chennai, where Olcott also founded the Adyar Library and Research Centre. He aimed to obtain authentic translations of sacred texts from Buddhist, Hindu, and Zoroastrian religions to provide Westerners with a true understanding of Eastern philosophies, countering Westernized interpretations. Throughout his time in India, Olcott worked tirelessly to bridge the cultural and spiritual gap between East and West. He died in Adyar, Madras on the 17th of February, 1907.[52]

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