ABSTRACT
No single aspect of the Indian political experiment in the first quarter century of its independence in 1947 evoked so much world attention as its role in international affairs, which was certainly disproportionately large when compared with India’s then economic and military strength. The major reason was Jawaharlal Nehru, who as prime minister steered the infant ship of state for the first seventeen years of independence and presided over the formulation and direction of his government’s foreign policy. From 1947 until Stalin’s death in 1953, Nehru tried to maintain a “correct” relationship with the leader of the communist world, although Moscow described him as the “running dog of imperialism” or “an Anglo-American satellite". All through the 1960s and until 1987, Soviet Union continued to be dominant external influence in India. During most of that period, there was a corresponding growing axis between United States and Pakistan and between Pakistan and China, leading to a triangular axis during Richard Nixon administrations.
