The Making of India’s Foreign Policy: Elements and Determinants

Foreign policy making is very complex and contentious area which a country seeks to pursue keeping in mind its national objective and national interest. Since, before the dawn of Independence, crafting a stable and a responsible foreign policy doctrine was always the prime areas of concern which was dealt with utmost priority. With a broad objective to build up a multicultural, nonviolent and an equitable non- discriminatory world order India and its foreign policy discourses have perhaps been the most unwavering instances of a responsible global player in world politics. This paper makes an attempt to review such choices, elements, objectives and stakeholders in the making and un-making of India’s Foreign Policy doctrine since its independence. It broadly locates the foreign policy making dynamics in India under 3-I’s which has been thematically divided in- Institutional, Ideological and Interpersonal skills. Identifying the subjective and objective elements within the Indian foreign policy debates this chapter attempts to make an appraisal how in the past 75 years India has swiftly been able accommodate all its national and domestic aspiration while managing with power within and beyond the region by constructing and deconstructing an independent and responsible foreign policy doctrine. This chapter will explore the domestic determinants of India’s foreign policy which could be comprehended in terms of a series of concentric circles. At the core of the process remain the foreign minister and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) bureaucracy, formally charged with the making of India’s foreign policy. However, most of the Indian prime ministers—from Nehru right upto Modi, with Indira, Rajiv, Rao and Vajpayee in between—have taken a keen interest in foreign affairs, which has often put the foreign minister under a shadow and made it imperative to take into account the prime ministerial contributions towards foreign policy formulation. Again, on the outer orbit one can locate a body of principles and norms, by no means static of course, which provided ideological sustenance to the foreign policy discourse through the post-independence decades and therefore demand our attention. Going beyond these personal, institutional and ideological dimensions, this chapter will also take a brief look at the role of the military, the business groups and the media in shaping India’s foreign policy. While the influence of these elements remains relatively under-researched, they are more and more perceived as furnishing critical inputs to the policy process and hence needing closer analysis.