ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses whether India’s global engagement is as defensive as many observers claim and provides a more nuanced picture and argues that India is much more than a veto-player and rule taker in international negotiations. It argues that India has developed a rather distinct variant of multilateralism that combines the norms of sovereignty and non-interference with a quest for global justice and fairness. The chapter analyses how India managed to form and contribute to counter-hegemonic groupings of states, first the inclusive Group of 77, which has increasingly been replaced by the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as a club of so-called emerging economies. India’s foreign policy has experienced several phases since the country gained independence in 1947. India was a member of the League of Nations and became an active member of the United Nations and other international organisations.
