Re-interrogating the India-Africa Relations: Knitting the Pieces of India’s Emerging Strategic Partnerships and Pathways

India’s history of engagement with Africa can be traced back over the centuries to when Indian traders visited the East African coast. But the foundation of modern day India-African relations was built in the post- colonial period, when India enlarged its cooperation framework with Africa as part of its efforts to demonstrate solidarity with developing countries. While Mahatma Gandhi laid the foundation of India-Africa relations way back in 1900, it was India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who gave relationship a political structure during his long tenure as Prime Minister of India. To embark on a policy of supporting the African fight for independence and decolonization, the Government of India introduced various Africa-centric initiatives immediately after its independence. Nehru played a leading role in convening the first Asian-African Conference in April 1955, which brought representatives of 29 African and Asian countries to the Indonesian city of Bandung, and gave rise to NAM (Non Aligned Movement) which eventually culminated in South -South Cooperation. The whole gamut of the relationship received a major thrust after the liberalization of the Indian economy in early 1990s. Relations with Africa have improved over the years and become dominated by India's economic interests. With a high economic growth rate, and a booming economy, India’s dependency on accessing natural resources is a top priority and has accordingly expanded its horizons. Securing oil was a key concern for the country in the mid-2000s, leading to deliberate efforts to build ties with Africa’s established and emerging petro-states. From an ideological primacy of the early years, India’s engagements in Africa began to factor more on pragmatic considerations in its foreign policies. Africa, with all its seemingly unlimited natural resources, was an ideal partner. While Nehru saw Africa on the prism of Afro-Asian solidarity and non-alignment, Prime Ministers of the new millennium, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi, put the ‘economy first’ in their respective foreign policy approaches towards African countries. Since 2000, the Indian government has intensified economic engagement with the African continent by pushing an ‘economy first’ approach. India sought to focus on issues such as business and market access, private sector investment, energy security, diaspora and economic diplomacy. India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh devised various economic measures to woo African countries, to strengthen economic ties between India and Africa, during his tenure between 2004–2014. On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, in the last ten years, built up multi-faceted and dynamic relationships with an increasing number of African countries. China is of course one of the driving forces behind India’s Africa policy. Beyond China, non-traditional threats—such as piracy—necessitated a proactive security policy, as well. Moreover, the goal of gaining support from African countries to realise India’s ambition to be a permanent member of United Nations Security Council is one of the other main influences on India’s development cooperation policy in the narrow sense and on India’s politico-diplomatic foreign and security policy visà-vis Africa. Taking the general switchover of India’s relations with Africa as a starting point, this article reviews the strategic drivers behind India’s growing engagement with African countries, and explores the various strategic initiatives that India has taken to woo African countries in contemporary times.