Given the emerging geopolitics and the rise of external powers like China in the Indian Ocean, assessing India's maritime diplomacy toward the small island countries in the region is crucial. This article uses a multi-method qualitative research design to analyze how India's approach to maritime security and to its strategic engagement with the Small Island States in the Indian Ocean has evolved over time. How the geostrategic environment influences and determines the key drivers of India's maritime strategy. To analyze this, the article is divided into two parts: the first examines how the historical narrative of an Indian Ocean strategy and discusses the Indian Navy's role in shaping India's foreign policy, setting the foundation for India's approach to the SICs. The second part focuses on how India adopted a "whole-of-government approach" to its maritime diplomacy, leveraging nonmilitary and civilian agencies to build ties with island nations in the Indian Ocean. The analysis focuses on India's relationships with four select countries: the Seychelles, the Maldives, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, illustrating the varied political, diplomatic, security, and developmental dimensions of these relations.
In recent years, Arctic climate change has not only affected the global environment but also enhanced the region's strategic and economic significance. Both China and India have shown growing interest in the Arctic. Following the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the region has witnessed an intensified trend of "re-securitization," disrupting its governance system. Against this backdrop, examining the roles of China and India in Arctic affairs and assessing their cooperation potential hold substantial theoretical and practical relevance. Drawing on structural and neoclassical realist theories, this study constructs an analytical framework centered on structural and situational factors. It argues that the complex geopolitical and institutional landscape of the Arctic imposes significant constraints on China-India cooperation. Nevertheless, the two states retain notable potential for collaboration in areas such as climate change research, environmental protection, and sustainable development-fields characterized by low costs, high long-term returns, and positive cognitive resonance. In contrast, cooperation in Arctic shipping and the blue economy entails higher costs, greater perceptual divergence, and a narrower scope for joint action. As bilateral relations gradually stabilize, cooperation in the relatively low-sensitivity domain of Arctic affairs could further bridge differences, rebuild trust, and help address the region's most pressing challenges.
This study aims to explore the dimensions of India's emerging maritime strategy through the interlinkages of its strategic hedging: Sagar (Security and Growth for All) in the Indo-Pacific and Sagar Mala (an internal balancing mechanism focused on domestic and hinterland port connectivity). While Sagar encompasses enhancements in Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), bilateral agreements for military base access, and joint military exercises with strategic partners, Sagar Mala focuses on port modernization and hinterland connectivity. Analyzing India's efforts, this article foregrounds the underexplored dimension of civil-military fusion in India's maritime security strategy. The study is novel, as it uniquely conceptualizes the two Projects as "conjoined twins," whereas previous works treated them separately.
From "India Out" to "Welcome India," relations between the Maldives and India seem to have come full circle. The Muizzu administration is adopting a cautious approach, seeking concessions from New Delhi while simultaneously strengthening ties with Beijing. This article explores the depth of India-Maldives relations and evaluates the factors that have led to the diplomatic flip-flops between the two countries. While the Modi administration has made concerted efforts to enhance its engagement with the Maldives, it is still debatable whether India can match China's "chequebook diplomacy" and if the Maldives would eventually support India's broader foreign policy objectives and security concerns. Indeed, the larger concern for India is that the "Muizzu template" could now be well adopted by countries of South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Among the most common responses to instances of communal violence in India is the establishment of commissions of inquiry. Primarily instituted in the aftermath of riots, they are established to provide answers to victims, facilitate lesson learning, and attribute accountability by gathering evidence, conducting hearings, producing a report detailing the nature and causes of the incident and providing recommendations for future remedial and preventive actions. Despite their importance to commission of inquiry processes, however, those reports are routinely delayed and, once produced, sometimes sit for decades before they are tabled in parliament or their contents are made public. This article examines why, after such lengthy delays, Indian governments choose to release the findings of inquiries into past instances of communal violence. Drawing on evidence from 18 commissions and focusing on four key cases, it argues that two key factors typically underlie decisions to table delayed riot reports: proximity to elections and political blame games. In doing so, it demonstrates that in the context of general elections, the tabling and publication of commission of inquiry reports allows political incumbents to avoid blame for past instances of violence, and both governments and opposition parties to attribute blame to their opponents.
The Indian General Elections of 2024 commenced with a much hyped 'Abki Baar 400 Paar' slogan by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party aiming for a parliamentary supermajority, winning 370 seats alone and over 400 constituencies together with its allies. The elections concluded with a third consecutive BJP victory albeit reliant on regional parties like the Telugu Desam Party and the Janata Dal (United), crucial pre-poll allies for a parliamentary majority. While the seat targets were often proclaimed as an emotive or psychological mark for the BJP and its cadre, what is often being overlooked, is a clear arithmetic calculus which seems to have shaped the BJP's electoral strategy in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Retaining the 303 seats it won last time around in 2019, reclaiming some 50 odd seats which the party had won earlier but couldn't win in 2019 while expanding into some newer constituencies where it had never emerged victorious before. The formula of 'Gain, Regain and Retain' thus strategically summarises BJP's 'Mission 370'. Using election data provided by the ECI and Lokniti - CSDS, this article shall assess the BJP's performance along these three parameters while analysing state-specific and sometimes even sub-regional or constituency level reasons for the same. It argues that an impressive retention rate despite notable losses paralleled by modest to low success rates in reclaiming older seats and expanding into newer constituencies explain the sobering victory of the party in this election placing the BJP in pole position to form a third consecutive government with support of its allies. In conclusion, this article shall also reflect on the nature of the BJP as a political party and the Indian party system in current times offering key strategic insights, electorally relevant for the BJP and the Opposition in and after 2024.
This essay examines the historical construction of sweepers' roles in early twentieth-century United Provinces, highlighting the intersections of caste, labor, and urban governance. It explores sweepers' indispensable yet stigmatized work in sanitation, epidemic control, and municipal systems, revealing how colonial authorities and native elites reinforced casteist exclusion through surveillance and dehumanization. Sweepers were caricatured as either polluting or paternalistically "reclaimable." The final section uncovers sweepers' fragmented yet assertive resistance through religious conversions, respectability claims, and strikes, defying linear class or caste narratives. Despite urban spaces offering limited mobility and sites of resistance, structural oppression persisted, with sweepers' demands consistently marginalized. The essay argues that UP's modern cities remained deeply caste-ized, where sanitation labor was hereditary, and dirt functioned as a political tool to enforce hierarchy. By tracing sweepers' labor, representation, and assertion, this essay illuminates the enduring entanglement of caste, labor, and urbanization in modern India.
The political rise of the BJP in West Bengal is an extraordinary development, considering the state's long history of electing left-leaning parties since the 1950s. The 34-year regime (1977-2011) of the Left Front had appeared to shape the state's political landscape and set its ideological direction for the subsequent decades. However, that perception appears to have been overwhelmingly shattered by the BJP's rapidly increasing vote share in the state. By applying Vilfredo Pareto's concepts of elite circulation, residues, and derivations, we can gain a theoretical understanding of the continuities observed in the leadership of the Left Front and the BJP. This article will attempt to analyze the politics of postcolonial West Bengal and the emergence of right-wing politics in the state, specifically the BJP's ascent, using Pareto's theories.
The Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the India-Myanmar border was designed as an innovative border management mechanism that addresses the cultural distribution and socio-economic needs of cross-border communities. The Government of India's decision to abolish the FMR and fence the border, citing its misuse by certain factions, has faced opposition from various stakeholders. In this context, the current paper explores the relevance of the FMR in light of emerging theoretical insights regarding the role and function of borders, as well as the factors behind abolishing the regime. The paper contends that the decision to rescind the FMR and construct a border fence highlights a complex trade-off between securing the border and meeting the needs of borderland communities. Rather than excessively prioritizing national security, India should develop a more creative approach that balances security requirements with the concerns of borderland communities.
This article examines Jawaharlal Nehru's role in shaping the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian Union and how that legacy has been fundamentally reinterpreted in recent years. Article 370, which granted Jammu and Kashmir special autonomy, was introduced to accommodate the region's contested accession to India in 1947. As Prime Minister, Nehru played a central role in managing the crisis, pushing for a ceasefire in 1948, seeking a UN-mediated plebiscite, and overseeing debates in the Constituent Assembly on Kashmir's status. Drawing on speeches, Constituent Assembly debates, and legal documents, the article examines Nehru's Kashmir policies and argues that their constitutional and political ambiguities have enabled a sustained critique of his legacy, particularly by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The article analyzes the 2019 abrogation of Article 370 and the 2023 Supreme Court judgment upholding it and frames these developments as part of a broader project to reinterpret and dismantle the Nehruvian constitutional settlement in Kashmir. Finally, this article suggests that contemporary shifts in Kashmir policy reflect not just legal change, but a deeper contest over historical memory, national identity, and the meaning of constitutional integration.
The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India by the then ruler of the princely state, Hari Singh, in 1947, and its immediate aftermath, need reexamining to understand the important role played by Jawaharlal Nehru in guaranteeing the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with India. From ensuring an accession before providing military assistance, to getting the support of the most popular Kashmiri leader, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, Nehru's imprint was prominent in all events concerning Jammu and Kashmir. Policies followed by the Indian leadership in the immediate aftermath of violent partition created a "path dependence," shaping the subsequent trajectory of politics in the region. Piecing together the events following Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India, the aim is to present a clearer view of Nehru's role in accession, and the subsequent political dynamics that emerged in Jammu and Kashmir.
This essay is an engagement with Nehru's political thought, and, what has come to be known as, Nehruvian secularism, in order to show secularism's relational, contextual, and historical character. Although, in mainstream and popular culture, Indians today continue to use the slogan "unity in diversity," it may be argued that this nationalist slogan signaled a very different meaning at the height of Nehruvian secularism, in the first two decades after independence, than what it signifies today. In order to shed light in this shift in secularism's meaning, the essay delves into Nehruvian narratives and justifications for a secular India. In so doing, the essay highlights the strengths and weaknesses of Nehruvian secularism, and the lessons that can be learned from the discourse that provided the legitimating vocabulary for this secular state ideology.
During the Cold War years, non-alignment was not only a policy; it constructed the political identity of the Indian state in the international system. In the post-Cold War years, there has been a paradigmatic shift from the non-align policy, but some of its tenets still guide the Indian foreign policy. One of them is strategic autonomy in matters of foreign policy. India's support to the Global South in the last few years also has its roots in the Nehruvian policy to unite postcolonial countries on an international forum. This article intends to answer the following questions: How did Nehru try to shape a collective identity of the colonized and then newly decolonized countries? Is Voice for Global South, rooted in Nehruvian, thinking?
India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who governed India for seventeen years since India's independence on 15 August 1947, is one of the most studied world leaders of the twentieth century. Widely regarded as the builder of modern India, he is also one of the most critiqued leaders in India, in fact, across the world. However, given politics behind such critiques, regime change ignite such criticisms. No wonder since 2014 criticisms of Nehru and his policies have been sharper and heightened. This review article is based on four recent publications on Nehru. The present essay becomes multi-paradigmatic because the four studies, each based on primary sources, are by a historian, an economist, an expert on international relations and a political scientist. Each author is an expert in his/her realm. While Mukherjee's study situates Nehru's secularism and socialism in Indian social perspective, Panagariya critiques Nehru's economic policies, while lauding his governance model. Benvenuti's primary research focuses on the significance of Bandung on Nehru's foreign policy of non-alignment. Swapna Kona Nayudu follows Benvenuti's analysis by analysing Nehru's foreign policy of non-alignment. Among the most discussed and studied world leaders, Nehru is admired, criticized, and reviled, not only since India's independence on August 15, 1947, but prior to that, as he plunged himself into the movement for Indian independence and proclaimed himself a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. The four books under review here study several dimensions of the first Prime Minister of India who had emerged as a world leader long before Indian independence and was designated by Mahatma Gandhi as his heir when the British Union Jack was replaced with the Indian tricolor. He stood tall during the twentieth century as a mass leader, as a popular Prime Minister of a nascent1 nation coming out of colonial rule of two centuries and as a global statesman. His stature as a leading statesman soared even as the world got embroiled in the cold war, since he brought the concept of nonalignment on the world stage working with Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, Czechoslovakia's Josip Broz Tito and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah.2 However, he courted controversies for his economic3 and social policies of secularism and socialism as well as his foreign policy as the twenty-first century dawned. This review article attempts to weave together Nehru's assessments by a historian, an economist and two political scientists. Historian Aditya Mukherjee knits together Nehru's politics and policies during his regime in the socio-political realm to construct the persona of one of the greatest global leaders of the twentieth century, and he does so without shying away from reviewing controversies around him. Economist Arvind Panagariya who has disagreed with Nehru's economic policies that hinged on a planned and socialistic economy, deconstructs and critiques his "developmental model." Political Scientist Andrea Benvenuti puts the emergence and evolution of Nehru's policy of nonalignment at the time of the Cold War under a critical lens. Additionally, and finally, political scientist Swapna Kona Nayudu reviews the origin and development of Nehru's policy of nonalignment in historical perspective. The four books, thus, construct a holistic view of Nehru and his regime. The current and continuing relevance of Nehru and a discourse on the "idea of India" that he conceived of is to remove the miasma on his persona that was spread by demonizing his politics and policies in the country he lived and died for and strove to build its future as its first Prime Minister for seventeen years. The effort during this period, as Aditya Mukherjee says, is to "dismantle" Nehru, which goes on to concoct "historic blunders" of Nehru and labor hard even to discover and establish a secret Muslim ancestry of Nehru. A Royal Statistical Society (RSS) journal Kesari states that Nathuram Godse should have instead shot Nehru dead (p. 5). Indeed, the hatred against Nehru runs so deep that not only any and every institution named after him has witnessed a name change, but there is also a hesitation in mentioning him while listing the Prime Ministers of the country since independence.
The paper belongs to the field of comparative institutional genealogies. Its title is derived from Martin Hollis' book, "The Cunning of Reason," which proposes a theory of individual, rational action by world historical leaders alongside an analysis of institutions but cautions its readers however, that the combined effects of individual choices are full of surprises. Applied to this paper, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the founding father of the Indian republic, is examined as a tactical player in domestic Indian politics and the strategic thinking behind his decisions and molding of national debate, specifically on the issue of the Hindu Code (the reform of Hindu Law), is explored. With the passing of the four Hindu Code Bills in the mid-fifties, it is argued, an institutional form took shape which had long-term implications for the trajectory of the Indian secular state and its persistent anomalies. Keeping in mind Hollis' caution regarding unintended consequences, the paper explores the shaping of Jawaharlal Nehru's institutional legacy and longer-term implications, particularly for communal polarization.
Jawaharlal Nehru was known, during his time and beyond, as the spokesperson of modern science and the possibilities it offered in solving many of the social problems. His admiration for science has been discussed by various important personalities of his time, and beyond including scientists and statesmen. The current article is an invitation to re-read Nehru's relationship with science as an attempt to reclaim Nehru's science, without becoming a hagiographic account. It is an effort to look at how Nehru was remembered and respected by another equally important spokesperson of modern science, J. D. Bernal. By looking at how J.D.Bernal remembered Nehru, the paper attempts to argue that Nehru's calling as a friend of science and scientists had a deeper impact beyond India. The paper argues that as historians and sociologists of science, we need to talk about Nehru's contribution, and remember him, and make sure that his contribution in sciences and scientific institutions are not erased from the text books of history and history of science, and at the same time we need to also use the critical lens of history of science and Science and Technology Studies (STS) to understand and engage with Nehru's relationship with science, power and the hierarchies it produced. Based on archival research, this paper discusses Nehru's friendship with J. D. Bernal and Bernal's admiration for Nehru as an example to imagine possible conversations on Nehru, science and his vision for a modern India.
Uttar Pradesh (UP) has long been recognized as the pivotal "Heartland" of Indian politics, owing to its multifaceted influences stemming from geographical, social, cultural, political, and linguistic factors both before and after independence. This significance of UP as heartland was reinforced by the state's substantial allocation of parliamentary seats, the notable number of Prime Ministers it has produced, and the entrenched influence of its political parties on the national stage. Caste and communal considerations play a pivotal role in shaping UP's political landscape, making it highly sensitive and capable of exerting polarizing effects that extend beyond its borders. The state's political headway has been significantly shaped by the establishment of backward class commissions and a burgeoning emphasis on education, bolstered by influential figures such as Phule, Ambedkar, and Lohia. The Mandal Commission report in the 1990s further catalyzed the rise of caste-based regional parties, leading to heightened awareness and enhanced political representation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in politics. This newfound recognition of OBCs' electoral significance prompted major political entities, traditionally aligned with upper caste interests, to embrace OBC candidates and activists. Consequently, OBCs progressively gained greater representation in both parliamentary and assembly elections, thereby wielding substantial influence over the electoral process. With this background, the paper delves into the evolving dynamics of OBC politics in Uttar Pradesh. The study also aims to scrutinize the political terrain by examining contentious caste-related issues that prominently cut across different political parties during elections in UP.
