Diaspora, Diplomacy and India’s Foreign Policy: A Study of Continuity and Change from Nehru to Modi

India’s Foreign Policy towards the Diaspora has elements of both continuity and change since independence. The anniversary marking seventy five years of independence provides an opportunity to make an assessment of the outreach of the state towards overseas Indians. Beginning with Nehru’s hands off approach towards overseas Indians owing to anti-colonial solidarity with Asian African nations, scholarly literature identifies three phases in India’s policy towards the diaspora. It was with the coming to power of Indira Gandhi that IFP towards the diaspora took on a pragmatic approach. The more dramatic transformation of IFP towards the diaspora though occurs at the end of the Cold War that coincides with the adoption of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) policies by the government of India. Globalization processes led to the reconfiguration of the relationship of the diaspora with the mother country. Territoriality of the nation state was no longer the ultimate container of globalising aspirations and dreams. The article in the above context attempts to assess India’s outreach towards the diaspora. In the assessment, it focuses on the India’s soft power and the use of cultural heritage towards the diaspora. In order to address contemporary developments, the article also examines the approach of both the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) governments towards the diaspora as a context to the exuberant interactions of Modi with the diaspora. In summation, the article documents the objectives of foreign policy towards the diaspora and also the means used to achieve these ends.