Journal of Critical Reviews ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7 , Issue 9, 2020 INDIA’S ISRAEL POLICY: FROM NEHRU TO MODI Mumtaz Ahmad Shah1 ,Dr. Tabraz2 1Mumtaz Ahmad Shah is a Ph.D. research scholar in the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He can be reached at [email protected] 2Dr.Tarbraz is an assistant professor at the Humanities and Social Science Department in the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, india. [email protected] Received: 12.03.2020 Revised: 10.04.2020 Accepted: 13.05.2020 Abstract India’s Israel policy had been subjected to various push factors. However, the rise of Indian neoliberals and Hindu nationalists facilitated the progress in bilateral relations with Israel. In a short period, this bilateral relationship has become a strategic partnership in making. Notably, ties with Israel has received a new dynamics under the premiership of Narendra Modi. His government has overcome the past modicum of cautious and celebrated relations with Israel, both diplomatically and politically. This paper will examine India’s Israel policy from a historical perspective to explain why and how India maintained for an extended period limited relations with Israel and how the post-1990s new domestic dynamics facilitated the transformation of India’s Israel policy. Keywords: India, Israel, Indian neoliberals, Hindu nationalists, Narendra Modi, © 2020 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.09.163 INTRODUCTION further into the Soviet orbit, and the two sides became quasi- The foreign policy is subjected to international constraints, military allies after the signing of the treaty of friendship and where the gap between aspirations and ability is often so cooperation in 1971[5]. India’s strategic proximity to the pronounced that the actor’s self-image and the reality seem an erstwhile Soviet Union and confrontation with Pakistan odd enterprise. Yet we cannot undermine the role played by the impacted its outreach to Israel. The Soviet factor linked India domestic factors. The competing domestic foreign policy with the Arab socialist republics. For example, India was buying visions do affect the foreign policy of a state [1]. Within this Iraqi oil and was paying Iraqi debts to the Soviet Union in the neoclassic realist framework that the foreign policy domain is a form of export of goods [6]. consistent interplay of international and domestic factors, this paper is an attempt to trace the process of progress in India’s In the 1990s, both international politics and Indian domestic Israel policy during the four main periods to examine how politics were in flux. The Soviet Union was retreating from the various governments approached this bilateral relationship. global superpower role, which was a concern for India because The first period was the Nehruvian era from 1947 to 1962. The the former had been defending New Delhi’s position on Kashmir influence of Jawaharlal Nehru before independence on the in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and was its Indian National Congress (INC) was significant, and, after 1947, foremost arms supplier. Then India also came to face militancy as the prime minister was central in structuring India’s foreign and separatism in the peripheral Muslim majority Kashmir policy outlook. He laid the foundation of foreign policy vision region backed by Pakistan. Further, then the Indian economy that aspires for greater security for India without losing was facing a financial crisis, and conditions were demanding moralists outlook in foreign policy [2]. The idea of autonomy structural reforms. It was in this backdrop the Hindu and self-sufficiency society are central to the Nehruvian Nationalists party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the perspective. They view India as the pre-eminent South Asian national-level political party, and the INC was taken over by the power, which deserves great power status recognition from the neoliberal. international community. Those who are Nehruvian side of the Like international neoliberals, Indian neoliberals also believe in political spectrum have central to their ideology, a secular and democracy and a free-market economy. They consider that democratic state, and nonalignment basis foreign policy. India’s path to great power status would come from its The nonalignment policy was both a Nehruvian principle and economic capabilities. Therefore, the foreign policy decision strategy to define India’s global position and defend national should take into account the impact of a decision on India’s interests. The nonaligned India declined to ally with either side trade, investment, and technology [7]. of the Cold War spectrum and utilized the grey spots of power The neoliberals dominated the PM Narasimha Rao led INC politics to propagate the international relations based on government (June 1991-May 1996). It was during this era that respect for sovereignty, regionalism, multilateralism, and racial the structural reforms in the Indian economy, in line with the equality [3]. India hosted the first Asian Relations Conference capitalist model of development was initiated, and India (1947) in New Delhi and the apex of which was the adopted the multi-alignment policy by reaching out to the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961. global and regional powers. Indian neoliberals prioritized New Consequently, India’s investment in the NAM aligned it Delhi’s strong ties with the US. They showed a willingness to diplomatically with the Arab world and maintained a distance coordinate with Washington to jointly protect and promote the with Israel. rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region against the The second phase of Indian foreign policy was from 1962 to assertiveness of Beijing. While during the tenure of the PM 1991. During this period, India was outperformed by China in a Manmohan Singh led coalition government (2004-2014), the border war in 1962. The defeat exposed India’s military Indo-US relations were upgraded to the strategic partnership weakness and eventually modified its foreign policy. PM Indira level [8]. Gandhi came with her doctrine that South Asian states must The impact of this development was noticed on India’s Middle align their policies with the security needs of India [4]. India East policy. New Delhi made a backtrack from agreed strategic made tilt towards the Soviet Union, and by 1964, the Soviet gas and oil cooperation with Iran. It supported the US-backed Union was its largest defense partner. The split in the Sino- three resolutions until 2011 against the controversial Iranian Soviet communist alliance and emergence of the triangle nuclear program and diminished oil imports from Iran [9]. This tactical alliance of the US with Pakistan and China pushed India was a position in conformity with Israeli stand. Further, the Journal of critical reviews 872 INDIA’S ISRAEL POLICY: FROM NEHRU TO MODI Indian neoliberals came to view Israel as a state with expertise Jewish homeland. India as a member of the United Nations in defense and agriculture technology. Subsequently, the two Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) voted in favor of the sides formed multi-sectorial cooperation [10]. minority backed federal plan, against the majority supported the two-state solution. After Israel declared its independence Whereas, the Hindu nationalists uphold cultural nationalism state on 14 May, 1948, India declined to recognize it in the and view India as a Hindu civilizational entity. Their domestic United Nations in June 1949. political vision is ideological driven and aims to promote and protect the Hindu culture and its symbols, values, and practices. Why India did so. Kumaraswamy (2010) argued that then India Their foreign policy vision is closer to realism as they give pre- followed the wait and watch policy to make sure whether Israel eminence to national security. Besides, their understanding of could survive [18]. Ashok Sharma and Dov Bing (2015) argued civilization is essentialist in nature. The civilizational threat is that India’s decision could be attributed to its national security mainly viewed as internal cultural diversity and externally concern, as it had then feared that such a move would drive the Pakistan and China alliance. They feel Hindu were the victim of Arab states to support Pakistan’s attempt to have the Kashmir Nehruvian secularism and soft policy towards Pakistan and dispute moved from the Security Council to the General China [11]. They admire the US and Israel by believing that Assembly [19]. In May 1948, Indian Ambassador to the US, three democracies are victims of terrorism and share a common Lakshmi Pundit acknowledged to her Israeli counterpart Eliahu strategic interest to contain Islamic and Confucian powers rise. Eilat in Washington that the situation in Kashmir had postponed the recognition of Israel [20]. India then also did not The political expression of Hindu nationalism was first the want to alienate numerically significant Arabs. In 1950 Nehru Bharatiya Jan Sang, and then later, the BJP replaced it in the wrote a letter to his Chief Ministers of Indian Union “we 1980s. The BJP was in power from 1998 to 2003 and came back refrained from recognizing Israel because of our desire not to to power in 2014 and third term in 2019. Like the INC, the BJP offend the sentiments of our friends in the Arab countries” [21]. in power also gave priority to its ties with the US while Furthermore, India then sensed that closer ties with Israel maintained a working level of relationship with other great might alienate its Muslim minority and affect its strategic powers. They successfully overcame India’s nuclear dilemma interests in the Middle East. A statement was made by the and conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998. When the US Muslim legislature in the Indian Parliament: launched a war on terror with the invasion of Afghanistan, India called the US natural ally [12].