ABSTRACT
India’s foreign policy is shaped by many factors, beginning with the very complexity of the country itself. Perhaps half of India’s 850 million people are among the poorest of the earth, living in severely straitened conditions, frequently abject poverty and backwardness. A force of a different order is the international pressure brought to bear upon India. India also had to deal with the reality of ethnic spillover along its borders. Bengalis, divided only by religion, populated the Indian state of West Bengal as well as the East wing of Pakistan. The most dramatic of India’s foreign policy involvements in 1987 was in Sri Lanka where the major ethnic communities have been engaged in a bitter conflict to determine the future shape of that country. India relies heavily on the Soviet Union for military equipment, but it fears excessive dependence and has diversified part of its arms purchases to Europe and the United States.
