East meets east: foreign relations between India and Poland during the Cold War

Abstract

This article discusses the objectives, influences, interests and outcomes of foreign relations between India and Poland from the time when India gained independence in 1947 up until the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989. While Indo–Polish interactions and conversations can be traced back to a distant past, the actual contours of their official relationship were determined by the omnipresent communist ideology in Eastern Europe, India’s non-alignment and the complexities and intricacies of foreign relations between India, America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Extensive research with voluminous publications already exist and inform on the various issues related to communism in Eastern Europe, India’s non-alignment and India’s foreign relations with America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. However, the existing scholarship on India’s foreign relations with the individual members of the Soviet hegemonic eastern bloc is rudimentary, and that on Indo–Polish bilateral relations specifically during the Cold War in the English language non-existent. This essay thus serves as a first step towards exploring a much neglected area of historical investigation. Using official press reports from India and Poland, the narrative begins to examine the political, economic, social and cultural understandings and exchanges between the two countries during the Cold War.