ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses domestic politics in India, focusing on various types of ethnic conflicts that have shaped politics of the nation in recent times. It looks at the foreign policy posture of India since the early-1990s and shows how the country is using foreign policy to bolster national security and transform its military into a modern fighting force. The creeping authoritarianism in Indian politics that emerged in the early-1970s eventually criminalised the polity, politicised bureaucracy and security agencies and rode roughshod over opponents of the Congress party. Local, state and national level politicians, irrespective of party affiliations, are likely to support extremely tough, perhaps even brutal, forms of response by security forces. Political turmoil in Russia and the former Soviet space resulted in unreliable defence supplies, which adversely affected India’s military whose weapons were predominantly Soviet-made. India must use its foreign policy skilfully to deal effectively with myriad threats to national security in an uncertain, turbulent and rapidly changing world.
