Ishita Bhandari

International Relations Theory

Professor Kasturi Chatterjee

04th May 2021.

India’s relations with its neighbouring countries.

Background:-

India gained independence in 1947. Since independence, there have been dramatic changes in

neighbours and neighbourhood policies. Today, India has eight neighbouring countries. But this

was not always true. Revolts, freedom movements and wars all over South-Asia led to the

current neighbours of India. These eight neighbouring states are Pakistan, Bangladesh (former

East Pakistan), Myanmar (Burma), Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and China.

Maintaining cordial relations with all neighbouring states is a task, and India is struggling.

India’s state of international relations with its neighbours can be termed as ‘tolerant’ at the most.

While India's relations with some have been bilateral and peaceful, some are especially

estranged. It is no news that India’s relationship with Pakistan is less than political owing to

factors like territorial disputes, military supremacy and religious discord. When it comes to these

two nuclear-armed countries, all efforts to maintain diplomatic relations seem to go in vain and

are always on the verge of war. India has also been involved with China in a war over a border

dispute. India and China relations seem to have improved as both tried to rise to global powers

together, in 2021, India and China have landed in a contrarian relationship. India has also been

involved in another territorial dispute with Sri Lanka over the water resources of the Palk Strait

in Bay of Bengal. India’s relationship with Afghanistan is strong, except for a small conflict over
the Durand Line, which verifies or disproves India’s ties to Afghanistan and the Taliban

movement that put Pakistan and India’s relationship in jeopardy through no fault of

Afghanistan’s own. India’s relationship with Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal are

powerful and dependable too.

Rationale of the study:-

Until two decades ago, India was viewed as nothing but a developing country, with a low profile

on the global economic and political front. But India’s sudden growth in economic strength,

military power and rising political dominance has transformed the image of India as a rising

global power. This radical change in India’s image has shifted its role and policies as a country.

India has now assumed a new role both, internationally and in its immediate neighbour states

(Hogg, 2007). Therefore this shift in India’s foreign affairs has had a major effect on its

diplomatic relations with its neighbour states. Tracking India’s graph of bilateral relationship

with the countries that share India’s border, brings out the intrinsic characteristics of India as a

nation state.

Ascertaining what India’s relationship with its neighbours can be categorized as is a complex

question. While its relationship with some countries is more than diplomatic which points

towards an idealist outlook, it’s relationship with the other neighbouring states points towards a

realist outlook. Asserting the core characteristic of India through an international relations theory

is the question of this research.

Scope of the research project:-

The study focuses on India’s relationships with its neighbouring states and what it means for its

identity as an international state. The study finds that India has both extremes of relationships on

the scale of cordial relations to estranged relations. Prejudice and territorial supremacy seems to

be the most profound grounds tumbling diplomatic relationships. Analyzing the truth of the

statement to uncover the characteristic of India’s being as a state is the motive of this research

study. The study includes analysis of India’s relationship with its neighbours individually as well

as a comparative analysis to build an understanding to reach the conclusion to answer the

research question.

Methodology of the research project:-

This research study focuses solely on finding an answer to a question from already existing facts

and actions. Therefore, the methodology adopted for this study is “Narrative research”. The

research will depend on collecting the already existing data on India’s relations with its

neighbour countries, oral or in writing that gives an account of the actions and reactions, series of

events that occured, chronologically, leading upto India’s modern day stance on international

relationships. This will include collection of data through secondary sources like journals or

magazines, letters, stories from an individual’s related people, official documents, etcetera. This

data will be collected for all the eight countries that are neighbours to India. Information like

wars, conflicts, riots, disputes, peace treaties, et cetera would be analyzed in depth with

neighbouring countries’ relation to India.

After all the data is collected, systematic breakdown of information to chronologically analyze

India’s relationship to its neighbour states will take place. Because all neighbour states have been
considered to ascertain India’s characteristics, the research study analysis will be a comparative

analysis. After carefully analysing all the data collected, assumptions will be made and a

conclusion will be drawn to finally build an argument to deduce India’s characteristics as an

international relations theory.

Data Analysis:-

India and Pakistan-

Since their partition based on religion in 1947, India and Pakistan have had less than cordial

relationship. Both, India and Pakistan, have been involved in a series of wars, international and

territorial conflicts and military standoffs since their partition. Starting with the year 1947 itself,

the country’s partition caused one of the largest human migrations which led to riots, violence,

disturbance, and humanitarian crisis in both the newly-formed countries.

The first war between India and Pakistan started in 1947 and ended in 1948. The war was fought

over the territorial region of Kashmir after an invasion from Pakistan in October 1947. The

Maharaja of Kashmir, agreed to accede to India in return of help from the Indian Armed Forces

after recognizing internal conflict in the state as well as international invasion in the state. He

handed over Kashmir’s state defense, communications and international affairs to the Indian

government. To this date, historians on both sides argue over the reason of motivation of

Kashmir’s Maharaja’s sudden acceding to India. They argue whether it was before the indian

troops entered to protect the state (i.e., under military intimidation) or before the take-over of

Indian forces in Kashmir ( without coercion from Indian government). The war officially ended

after the intervention of the United Nations (Hashim, 2019).

The second war between the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and India broke out in 1965

when a conflict broke out within the military troops and border patrols in Rann of Kutch

(Gujarat, India). The conflict later escalated when thousands of Pakistani comrades crossed the

ceasefire line and entered the Indian territory of Kashmir. While the conflict remained local to

Kashmir, it rapidly became a full-blown war when Indian soldiers crossed the international

borders to enter Lahore and battle. Again, this war was also settled eventually by the intervention

of the United Nations mandated ceasefire orders (Hashim, 2019).

India and Pakistan went to war a third time in 1971, this time over East Pakistan, now modern

day Bangladesh. A military crackdown had already broken in Dhaka, but India only got involved

later when a preemptive strike took place on the airfields of North-east India. India then launched

a well-coordinated attack of the army, navy and airforce on East Pakistan. Pakisatani military

finally surrendered after 13 days after more than 90,000 soldiers became war prisoners.

Over the later years, Pakistan and India made several “peaceful pacts” to maintain harmonious

international relations with each other. This included respecting the border lines of control near

Kashmir, transparent nuclear power activities and such. But Pakistan broke the peace pact when

it offered its ‘moral and diplomatic’ support to Kashmiri locals revolting against Indian

government in 1990 and Indian government perceived the said as a rebellion by Pakistan and

even accused them of supplying weapons to the rebelling locals (Hashim, 2019).

In 1999, the first war took place between India and Pakistan when both the countries were

nuclear power equipped. This was the Kargil war. In 2001, the tension between the two countries

escalated when 38 people were killed in a Kashmiri assembly that took place in Srinagar. After

this incident, the state of Kashmir called Indian government to launch a fully-operational military

mission to destroy alleged Pakistani training camps (Hashim, 2019).

Despite efforts to develop diplomatic and tolerable international relations between the countries,

another major jolt to the developing relationship was the terrorist attack in Mumbai, an open fire

that killed civilians. Following these incidents, all talks to cordial peace relations were broken off

between the two countries. When the Modi government came into power, efforts to start new

bilateral relations with Pakistan were resumed. Both armed forces still continue to engage into

violent ways to resolve conflict like surgical strikes (Hashim, 2019).

The history of the bilateral relationship of India and Pakistan is full of ups and downs. More

often at a state of war than a state of cordiality. The complete failure of democracy in Pakistan

yields direct threats to Indian security and their international stance as neighboring countries.

According to Spencer R Weart’s theory, two democracies do not go to war because the common

outlook of being democratic is peace over war. But Pakistan seems to follow the realist

assumption that military power and strength are directly related to the chances of survival when

countries are always considered to be in a state of war. Pakistan’s realist faith in its army demotes

the whole peace being an integral part of democratic outlook and tumbles its position as a

democratic country. The militaristic culture of Pakistan not only undermines its own growth but

also forces India to keep taking a militaristic, violent approach to retaliate against Pakistan.

Rising political differences between the two countries and the power and territory battles only

furthers militarization of borders and makes resolving conflicts that much harder (Dodh, 2017).

It is high time the countries realize that wars come with an inherent trait of self-destruction and

self-realization works better than coercion or duress. Even though India believes in non-violence

and stands for peace as a democratic country should, its relationship with Pakistan points to more

of a realist outlook than a liberal one. While India’s stance as a tolerant country stands, even in

retaliation to protect its boundaries, India takes to war and destruction and believes in military
supremacy over Pakistan. India with relation to Pakistan and Pakistan only characterizes itself as

a realist state.

India and China-

India and China are amongst the oldest civilizations. After India and China’s independence in

1947 and 1949 respectively, India was amongst the first nations to establish political relations

with China. While both the countries have managed to co-exist in the run for global power, the

relationship has not always been cordial. The 1950’s were extremely peaceful and full of hope

where both the countries’ leaders stood in solidarity with each other and promoted each other

culturally. The leaders even created the ‘Panchsheel”, five principles of coexistence together.

The relationship between China and India finally started to deteriorate over border disputes and

both countries ended up in war against each other. The Sino-India war broke out in 1962 over the

same border conflicts and that was the last of untroubled relations between India and China. The

1960’s and 1970’s was a period of constant hostility and rising tensions between both. When in

1971, India signed a peace treaty with Soviet Union in 1971, the US and China decided to side

with Pakistan in 1971, when India was at war with Pakistan. Though efforts were made to

reestablish cordial relationship with China in the later 1980’s. The trade resumed, treaties were

signed to keep each other’s power and intentions in check. As of a couple years back, China and

India seem to have reached an all-time low with respect to bilateral relations.

In June 2020, Chinese and Indian military troops confronted each other in the conflicted area of

the western border. Even though the information is not public, it is assumed that succeeding this

confrontation, China may have taken control of some Indian territory. Requests have been made,
militarization resisted and even imposed economic sanctions on China. Seems like the countries

have landed at opposite ends of each other once again (Dossani, 2021). India seems to be a bit

more tolerant with China than it is with Pakistan but even then, the recent events have put the

countries in a state of war with each other. This seems a little too realist for a democratic country,

trying to exert military dominance or in this case military suppression, in both cases power seems

to be measured in military terms.

India- Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar:

India and its relations with Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar have been extremely cordial. While a

little tiff has been seen with its diplomatic relationship with Myanmar, it was nothing that could

not be restored. And its relationship with Nepal and Bhutan has always been smooth-sailing. All

the countries with relation to India seem to mind their own business and peacefully co-exist. All

the countries seem to grow in the world together giving India a new perspective than a realist

state. Here, India seems to have adopted the idealism theory of peaceful existence and of

growing together.

India- Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh:

India and Afghanistan have a strong relationship. After the Talibans, India helped the restoration

of Afghanistan. And other than a small territorial dispute over the resources of the Palk Strait,

India and Sri Lanka also seem to exist without dependency. Thanks to India, Bangladesh gained

independence in 1971. While Bangladesh and India have not always had a peaceful relationship,

it is more of a tolerant relationship.

With all the conflicts with all these countries, India has managed to keep its relationships with

Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectful.

Conclusion:-

Realism theory in International relations is survival in an unprecedented world by means of

being in a state of war, that is being in military supremacy. India’s relationships with all its

neighbouring countries fit in two broad categories. India is both a realist state and an idealist

state. While its relationship with Pakistan and China seem to be bleak and estranged, its

relationship with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka are decent

and respectful. Therefore, categorizing India in one broad category seems unfair as India seems

to be hanging at the two extremes of international relations theory scale. Since India preaches

itself a secular, liberal, democratic country, it is tolerant of more discrepancies within neighbour

nations than it need be. Therefore, it puts India as a more idealist state. But with its rising

nationalism and loss of the meaning of democracy by the government, India is now tilting

towards a realist state.

Works cited:

1) Dodh, Pankaj. (2017). India–Pakistan Relations: A SOCIOPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVE.

World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, 21(4), 110-125. Retrieved May 4,

2021, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/48531309.

2) Hashim, Asad. (2019). Timeline: India-Pakistan relations. AlJazeera. Retrieved May 3,

2021, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/3/1/timeline-india-pakistan-relations.

3) Zhu, Zhiqun. (2011). China-India Relations in the 21 st Century: A Critical Inquiry.

Indian Journal of Asian Affairs, 24(1/2), 1-16. Retrieved May 4, 2021, from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41950508.

4) Hogg, Charu. (2007). India and Its Neighbours: DO ECONOMIC INTERESTS HAVE

THE POTENTIAL TO BUILD PEACE? A Chatham House Report in association with

International Alert. Retrieved May 4, 2021, from

https://www.international-alert.org/sites/default/files/India_EconomicInterestsPeace_EN_

2007.pdf.

5) Dossani, Rafiq. (2021). Stabilizing China-India Relations in 2021: Is This Possible?

Retreived May 4, 2021, from

https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/02/stabilizing-china-india-relations-in-2021-is-this-possi

ble.html.