On Understanding Indian Foreign Policy
| Author | Alan De Rusett |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711785900101103 |
| Date | 01 April 1959 |
| Published date | 01 April 1959 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ON UNDERSTANDING INDIAN
FOREIGN POLICY
ALAN
DE
RUSETf
UNTIL quite recently,
an
outstanding complaint
of
informed
interpreters
of
India's independent role in world affairs was
that the nations
of
the West had aremarkable capacity for mis-
understanding it.
It
was hard indeed to find abook, article
or
speech
~n
India's foreign policy that did not
at
one point
or
another hammer
Orne
this theme. Their authors might
be
Indians
or
citizens
of
~estern
countries, sympathetic apologists
or
critical commentators,
ut they were generally agreed that too many Americans and
ENuropeans
were looking
at
Indian policies in general, and
at
Mr.
ehru in particular, through mists
of
misapprehension.
In early
1956,
even before India's reaction to the Suez and Hun-
garian crises
of
that
year had further confused matters, Mrs. Pandit
had observed
that"
after eight years
of
independence, India's foreign
pOlicy
still gives rise to grave doubts in the Western mind
",
and had
at!ributed this largely to out-dated Western modes
of
thought and
fatlure to understand her
"country's
background and its human
aspirations ".1 Shortly afterwards, Professor Appadorai and some
of his distinguished colleagues in the Indian Council
of
World
Affairs, surveying their Government's policies in the United Nations,
Concluded
that
India's attitude toward the problem
of
collective
peace enforcement
was"
rarely understood
".2
Further regret
at
Western incomprehension came from both past and contemporary
editors
of
the Times
of
India, when Sir Francis Low explained that
.. much misunderstanding exists in the West, and especially in
America, on the subject
of
India's relations with Communist
China ",3 while Mr. Frank Moraes affirmed
that"
the West has
~till
to understand and appreciate
fUlly
"4
the vital nature
of
India's
I?terest in the peace
of
Asia. And so on, down along
Jist
of
publica-
hons. Misunderstanding, always misunderstanding.
Recently, however, this chorus
of
complaint has died
down;
the
OCcasion
for it now appears to
be
passing away. The fog over
India's foreign policy has been manifestly lifting for some time in the
West.
It
is
difficult to say when this happy development began ;
maybe it started even in the dark year
of
1956,
when misunder-
standings were exaggerated by anger, and adesire to begin leisurely
repentance may have set in,
at
least so far as Britain was concerned.
Certainly, throughout
1958,
statesmen and publicists in the West
1Mrs.
V.
L.
Pandit.
..
India's Foreign Policy". Foreign Affairs. April
1956.
Vol 34,
No.3,
p. 432.
2India and the United Nations. Carnegie Endowment, New York.
1957,
P.208.
8Sir Francis Low. Struggle for Asia. Muller, London, 1955,
p.
189.
4Frank Moraes. Jawahar/al Nehru. Macmillan, New York, 1956,
p.
446.
543
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