Topic: India & NAM
Q2. Analyse India’s role in the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War. How does India’s stance in contemporary multipolar geopolitics reflect continuity or departure from NAM’s principles? (15 M)
Difficulty Level: Medium
Reference: InsightsIAS
Why the question
India’s post-independence foreign policy shaped the Non-Aligned Movement, and today’s multipolar geopolitics tests whether India follows continuity with NAM principles or departs towards pragmatic alignments.Key Demand of the question
The question requires analysing India’s role in NAM during the Cold War, assessing how India’s present foreign policy reflects NAM’s continuity, and evaluating the departures in a multipolar world.Structure of the Answer:
Introduction
Briefly highlight India’s post-independence foreign policy challenge of navigating bipolarity and how NAM emerged as an instrument of strategic autonomy.Body
- India’s role in NAM during Cold War – mention leadership in founding NAM, advocacy for decolonisation, disarmament, mediation, and economic justice.
- Continuity of NAM principles today – strategic autonomy, Global South leadership, multilateralism, South-South cooperation, climate equity.
- Departures from NAM – issue-based coalitions like QUAD, hard power focus, economic realpolitik, tech alignments, pragmatic multi-alignment.
Conclusion
Summarise by noting that India’s foreign policy reflects continuity in principle but adaptation in practice, evolving from non-alignment to multi-alignment in shaping a multipolar world.
