Understanding India’s Relation with Pakistan and Afghanistan: A Study of Contested Spaces and Strategies

India has traditionally maintained friendly and peaceful relations with its immediate neighbours in South Asia. However, over the years, New Delhi has found it challenging to manage bilateral relations with two of its most significant neighbours—Afghanistan and Pakistan. The volatile political landscape in Afghanistan and the competitive relationship India shares with Pakistan, has made the space adjacent to its western border a contested one. This chapter will seek to trace the evolution of India’s foreign policy with these two countries. It will try to trace the reasons why India has historically shared a complex relationship with Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as shed light on how New Delhi has so far been able to navigate through the complexities. The first section depicts Afghanistan’s strategic relevance for India and how factors like frequent interventions by external powers, manipulation by Pakistan and the ever-changing political equations in Afghanistan has circumscribed India’s influence in the country from time to time. It also discusses in three distinct phases, how India has safeguarded its strategic interests in the country by recalibrating its Afghanistan policy at regular intervals. The second section of the chapter focuses on some of the outstanding features of India’s Pakistan policy in the contemporary period. It elaborates on how some of the policies taken by the Modi government vis-a-vis Pakistan have departed from New Delhi’s traditional stances on issues like Kashmir and terrorism.