Chapter 4 — India’s External Relations

Non-alignment meant India chose to stay away from the military alliances led by the US (NATO) and the Soviet Union (Warsaw Pact) during the Cold War. India advocated this as the ideal foreign policy approach, maintaining friendly relations with both blocs and receiving aid from members of both. As Nehru wrote in 1947, India's goal was 'to avoid entanglement in power politics and not to join any group of powers as against any other group.'

Jawaharlal Nehru played the crucial role. He served as both Prime Minister and Foreign Minister from 1946 to 1964, exercising profound influence over the formulation and implementation of India's foreign policy. His three major objectives were to preserve sovereignty, protect territorial integrity, and promote rapid economic development, all through the strategy of non-alignment.

Panchsheel refers to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, jointly announced by India's Prime Minister Nehru and China's Premier Zhou Enlai on 29 April 1954. One of its clauses involved respecting each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, through which India conceded China's claim over Tibet. It was meant to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Two main issues strained relations: China annexed Tibet in 1950, removing a historical buffer between the countries, and the Dalai Lama was granted asylum in India in 1959, which China protested strongly. Simultaneously, a boundary dispute emerged over the Aksai-chin area in Ladakh and much of Arunachal Pradesh (then NEFA). Between 1957 and 1959 China occupied Aksai-chin and built a strategic road there. Despite lengthy negotiations, differences could not be resolved, and China launched a swift and massive invasion in October 1962.

The war dented India's image at home and abroad. India had to seek military assistance from the Americans and the British, while the Soviet Union remained neutral. Defence Minister V. Krishna Menon resigned, and Nehru was severely criticised for his naïve assessment of China's intentions and the lack of military preparedness. A no-confidence motion against Nehru's government was moved in the Lok Sabha for the first time, and the Congress lost some key by-elections.

In April 1965 Pakistan launched armed attacks in the Rann of Kutch area of Gujarat, followed by a bigger offensive in Jammu and Kashmir in August–September. To ease pressure on the Kashmir front, Prime Minister Shastri ordered Indian troops to launch a counter-offensive on the Punjab border, and the Indian army reached close to Lahore. Hostilities ended with UN intervention, and the Tashkent Agreement was signed by Shastri and Pakistan's General Ayub Khan in January 1966, brokered by the Soviet Union.

Pakistan's 1970 general election produced a split verdict — the Awami League under Sheikh Mujib-ur Rahman swept East Pakistan, but Pakistan's rulers refused to accept the democratic verdict. In early 1971 the Pakistani army arrested Sheikh Mujib and unleashed repression on East Pakistan's people, causing about 80 lakh refugees to flee into India. After months of build-up, full-scale war broke out in December 1971; the Indian army advanced rapidly in East Pakistan and about 90,000 Pakistani troops surrendered at Dhaka, leading to the creation of Bangladesh as a free country.

India signed the 20-year Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the Soviet Union in August 1971 to counter the US-Pakistan-China axis that had formed as a result of the US-China rapprochement in the late 1960s. Henry Kissinger made a secret visit to China via Pakistan in July 1971, highlighting this alignment against India. The treaty assured India of Soviet support if the country faced any attack.

A long-term dispute about the sharing of river waters between India and Pakistan was resolved through World Bank mediation. The India-Pakistan Indus Waters Treaty was signed by Nehru and Pakistan's General Ayub Khan in 1960. The chapter notes that despite all the ups and downs in Indo-Pak relations, this treaty has worked well.

The Bandung Conference was an Afro-Asian conference held in the Indonesian city of Bandung in 1955. It marked the zenith of India's engagement with newly independent Asian and African nations. The conference later led to the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and the First Summit of the NAM was held in Belgrade in September 1961, with Nehru as a co-founder.

India conducted its first nuclear explosion in May 1974, called a 'peaceful explosion.' India's nuclear programme had been initiated in the late 1940s under the guidance of Homi J. Bhabha. India had refused to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968, viewing it as discriminatory because it was selectively applicable to non-nuclear powers while legitimising the monopoly of the five nuclear weapons powers (the US, USSR, UK, France, and China).

The war caused the Communist Party of India (CPI) to split in 1964. The growing rift between China and the Soviet Union, combined with the Sino-Indian conflict, created irreconcilable differences: the pro-USSR faction remained within the CPI, while another faction that was closer to China formed the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — CPI(M). Many leaders of what became the CPI(M) were arrested in the wake of the war for being pro-China.

Yes, the NCERT PDF for Chapter 4 — India's External Relations — is free to read and download on cbseprepmaster.com. No sign-up or account is required.