India and Antarctica

In this chapter, the author critically examines India’s historical endeavours in the Antarctic and how the world perceived this. The chapter highlighted that the treaty addressed the significant elements of the Antarctic Problem: differing attitudes to territorial claims and the potential conflict over the overlapping claims of Chile, Argentina and the United Kingdom in the Antarctic Peninsula. The Antarctic TreatyThe Antarctic Treaty set aside this problem through the provisions of Article IV. The chapter discusses the Antarctic TreatyThe Antarctic Treaty concerning India and the history of India’s involvement in the Antarctic from its initial attempt at raising the issue of Antarctica for the common good at the United Nations in the 1950s. India’s first Prime Minister, who was also the Minister of External Affairs, played a key role in India’s first meaningful engagement with the UN on this issue. As a key architect of India’s foreign policy, Prime Minister NehruNehru, Jawaharlal believed that India’s foreign policy and diplomacy should go beyond enlightened national interest and address more significant issues of global concern. The chapter states that India’s first involvement with the polar region started before India’s first official expedition to Antarctica in 1981. Paramjit Singh Sehra, from the Ahmadabad-based Physical Research Laboratory [PRL], set foot on Antarctica in 1971 aboard the Soviet research ship Professor Viese. It was Sehra’s participation in the Soviet expedition which sparked interest back home in India for further exploration of the icy continent, including the possibility of establishing an Indian Antarctic base in Antarctica. In May 1981, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi established the Department of Ocean Development (now under the Union Ministry of Earth SciencesIndiaMinistry of Earth Sciences) and ‘Operation Gangotri’ was born. The chapter on India’s Antarctic engagement suggests that the initiative of the late Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi primarily drove India’s endeavour in Antarctica. Indira Gandhi. The scientific community took this forward. However, there is no official acknowledgement of the linkages of this initiative with India’s foreign policy and national security imperatives.