From chanakya to modi evolution of india’s foreign policy

Arthashastra
dating back from the fourth century’.
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The early leaders of India’s national movement shaped not only the
struggle for independence but also defined the contours of independent
India’s policies. The formation of the Indian National Congress (INC) in
1885 provided a permanent organizational structure for Indians to discuss
and debate political issues, including their views on international
development. Soon after formation, the Congress started making
pronouncements on foreign affairs through resolutions, notwithstanding the
fact that British India’s international relations remained firmly in British
hands. For the Congress, not only was India part of the British Empire, its

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sons and daughters were spread around the globe as businessmen, labourers
and students. The British Indian army served in far-off places, justifying the
Congress’s interest in the treatment of Indians everywhere as well as in
events that affected Indian lives.
Many of the positions adopted during the independence struggle have
resonated in India’s post-Independence world view. For example, Dadabhai
Naoroji’s epic work 
Poverty and UnBritish Rule in India
(1901) and the
writings of Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848–1909) on the British agricultural
and revenue arrangements in India inspired the socialist economic policies
of the Indian National Congress and post-Independence India. Naoroji’s
1901 book was written as a critique of Britain’s economic exploitation of
India and was meant to advance the case for Indian independence.
The Congress was, in principle, against involvement of Indian troops in
any imperialist war or adventure. Still, during World War I the Congress
supported the Allied war effort with medical units and military volunteers.
Mahatma Gandhi was amongst those who supported and pushed for this
assistance. Gandhi and others hoped that if India supported the British, the
latter would grant India Dominion status after the end of the war. They
were, however, disappointed.
In 1919, the Congress planned to send a delegation led by veteran
Congress leader, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, to the Peace Conference at
Versailles, but the British government refused to provide passports to
members of the delegation. Tilak then sent a letter to Georges Benjamin
Clemenceau, French prime minister and president of the Peace Conference.
In his letter Tilak wrote: ‘India is self-contained, harbours no designs upon
the integrity of other states and has no ambition outside. With her vast area,
enormous resources and prodigious population she may well aspire to be a
leading power in Asia. She could therefore be a powerful steward of the
League of Nations for maintaining peace of the world’.
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The wording of

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the letter could as well be part of a statement by officials of independent
India after 1947.
In 1921 the Congress passed a resolution that repudiated the aggressive
policies of the Raj and reassured foreign countries, especially India’s
neighbours, that upon attainment of self-government, India’s foreign policy
would be one of friendship towards all. In 1925, at the fortieth session of
the Congress party in Kanpur, a resolution was passed for the need ‘to look
after the interests of Indians abroad and to carry on educative propaganda in
the country regarding their position in the British Empire and foreign
countries’. 
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A resolution passed at the Madras session in 1927 declared: ‘The people
of India have no quarrels with their neighbours and desire to live at peace
with them and assert their right to determine whether or not they will take