ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the evolution of India’s foreign policy in terms of its diplomacy, narrowly understood as the main instrument for the implementation of India’s foreign policy. It analyses the sociological characteristics of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), as well as the practices and discourses that are embedded within this institution and provides a complement to the study of emerging powers’ foreign policies. The chapter discusses three approaches to the Indian MEA: the contextual, the cultural and the negotiated approaches. The contextual approach to institutions treats them not as isolated and ahistorical entities, but rather as sociological objects determined by history as well as by the societal environment in which they evolve. The context in which the Indian State developed after independence in 1947 has left a strong mark on the Indian bureaucracy. Many symbolic devices were also set up in order to contribute to the formation of an esprit de corps among civil servants.
