Soviet and Communist Policy in India

Abstract

S OVIET COMMENTARY on India ordinarily begins with a ritual quotation from Lenin, contending that the ultimate world-wide victory of socialism is assured by the fact that China and India will follow Russia along that path. Until recently, however, communist prospects in India were in fact very bleak, and Soviet interest in India tended to flag. China was clearly the main focus of Soviet attention in Asia, and communist policy throughout the underdeveloped countries was in large part generalized from experience in China. But since the successful consolidation of communist power on the Chinese mainland, the Soviet leadership has shifted its attention increasingly to India. Recent events suggest that India is indeed a major target of communist aspirations and that the Soviet leaders may regard it as the key country in which a communist victory would tip the balance of power irrevocably against the capitalist West.