From chanakya to modi evolution of india’s foreign policy

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FROM CHANAKYA TO MODI
EVOLUTION OF INDIA’S FOREIGN POLICY
APARNA PANDE

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To my brother and sister-in-law, Chaitanya Pande and 
Mona Kwatra Pande

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Contents
Introduction
1. India and the World
2. A Rich Heritage
3. Ideas and Individuals
4. Principles and Interests
5. Institutions and Strategic Culture
Conclusion: Outlook for a Future Power
Notes
Index
Acknowledgements
About the Book
About the Author
Copyright

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Introduction
IN 2015, A Delhi-based motor accidents tribunal adjudicated that animal-
driven, slow-moving vehicles (or bullock carts) often caused serious
accidents. Instead of banning these vehicles from the road, the court simply
asked for them to be regulated.
1
The story serves as a metaphor for India’s
tendency to add the new to the old, instead of replacing it. A century after
the first motor car appeared on the streets of India, bullock carts, animals
(cows, buffaloes and dogs) and humans still share the same streets with
motor vehicles. In most countries, horse-driven carriages disappeared
within a few years of the arrival of motor cars. As recently as the 1980s,
one of India’s leading technical schools, the Indian Institute of
Management, even had a project to build a better bullock cart that would
carry heavier loads but with less wear and tear for the bullocks.
2
India’s desire to combine the traditional with the modern permeates also
the realm of its relations with the rest of the world. Addressing the United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for the first time as prime minister in
September 2014, Narendra Damodardas Modi, championed the adoption of
an International Yoga Day,
3
 a proposal that was adopted by the UNGA on
11 December 2014.
4
During Modi’s maiden address before the United
States Congress on 8 June 2016, he chose to mention yoga as one of the
cultural connections that bind the United States and India. ‘Our people to
people links are strong and there is close cultural connect between our
societies,’ he said, adding, ‘SIRI [the intelligent personal assistant on
iPhones] tells us that India’s ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million
practitioners in the US.’
5

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On 21 June 2016, Modi joined 30,000 fellow citizens in a mass session of
yoga in the heart of New Delhi.
6
Interestingly, Modi’s supporters cited the
global prevalence of yoga and the ease with which the United Nations
adopted an international day for yoga as a sign of India’s arrival on the
world stage as a major global power. Conventional definitions of what it
means to be a great power would differ with this view. Increasing number
of people practising the ancient regimen of yoga has little to do with the
current influence of the Indian state around the world. Similarly, being a
champion of anti-colonialism, a leading voice amongst the post-colonial
developing countries, having been one of the founders of the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM), or even a prominent voice in multilateral institutions
like the United Nations may give India global recognition and pride but it is
hardly a substitute for hard power.
Many Indians believe their country has economic power, military
strength and an important geostrategic location. To them, that alone should
be enough for global power status coupled with India’s 5000-year-old
civilization. However, in a recent book provocatively titled