Anti-Colonialism as a Basic Indian Foreign Policy

Abstract

SOME RECENT ATTEMPTS have been made to investigate the roots of India's foreign policy. Frequently, these attempts have been based on an equation between the ideas and attitudes of Prime Minister Nehru and Indian policy. Jawaharlal Nehru is certainly both the leader and symbol of modern India and, in that sense, has gained a position strikingly similar to that enjoyed by Gandhi prior to the transfer of power in India. Yet, it would be unfortunate if students of foreign policy were to overlook the fact that there are also basic considerations that have come to limit and determine a good deal of Indian foreign policy decision-making. By reference to both the history of the Indian national movement and some recent events in the application of Indian foreign policy, this article seeks to explain and elaborate upon the title's assertion that anti-colonialism is one such basic consideration. A basic policy achieves an existence independent of the leaders who strive to work with it. Its roots are to be found in cultural attitudes and chains of events, rather than single statements by individual leaders or resolutions passed by legislatures. A leader who negates such a basic policy, without careful manipulation of his support, faces political disaster. The ability to change this policy depends as much upon outside events as it does on the strength of the position of the leader(s). Isolationism is an example in the American historical experience, while the dangers of attempting to move away from a basic policy are well illustrated by Franklin D. Roosevelt's efforts in the period 1937-40.