P B D Dealing with Delhi: How Culture Shapes India’s Middle East Policy
Kadira Pethiyagoda The Brookings Institution is a private non-profit organization. Its mission is to conduct high- quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars.
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BROOKINGS DOHA CENTER Saha 43, Building 63, West Bay, Doha, Qatar www.brookings.edu/doha Dealing with Delhi: How Culture Shapes India’s Middle East Policy Kadira Pethiyagoda1
Introduction the roles played by culture in both supporting and undermining interests will help states “Cultural traditions, spiritual values, and to respond with more informed policies and shared heritage” underpin India and the United better equipped tools and institutions. Arab Emirates’ social and foreign policies, according to the joint statement issued by the The Role of Culture in Foreign Policy two states following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit.2 Of all emerging and Most policymakers acknowledge the role 5 established great powers, none boast deeper or played by culture in foreign policy. Studies of longer cultural ties with the Gulf than India. In the foreign policies of India and Middle Eastern addition, arguably no power is as dependent on states reveal that culture plays an important 6 the region as India, due to both energy trade and role. While culture is just one of many remittances. The Gulf Cooperation Council factors that underpin policy (e.g. strategic and is India’s largest trading partner.3 In addition economic interests), it receives relatively little to the economic interests long underpinning attention, particularly with regard to India’s India-Gulf ties, relations are now increasingly approach to the Middle East. strategically relevant given changing global The complexity of the culture concept and its 4 dynamics. At this pivotal time, it is imperative multiple meanings across disciplines contrib- that Gulf states understand the important role ute to the difficulty in understanding its role played by culture in India’s Middle East policy. in international affairs.7 As such, a conception This policy briefing examines India’s culture of culture needs to be adopted that 1) is com- and how it influences Delhi’s approach to the patible with much of the political and social region through two key avenues: values and science literature discussing it, and 2) permits identity. Recommendations are then provided the examination of culture as a variable influ- for policymakers in Gulf states on how to encing foreign policy. This policy briefing will utilize this knowledge to support strategic focus on cultural values, defined as observable and economic interests and to foster mutually social ideals for which people of a society show beneficial, lasting ties with India. Understanding some affective regard.
1 Kadira Pethiyagoda is a visiting fellow in Asia-Middle East relations at the Brookings Doha Center. His research focuses on India’s relations with the Gulf States, drawing on experience in Indian foreign policy spanning both policymaking and academia. He gratefully acknowledges the advice of Sultan Barakat, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, and insights provided by Ranjit Gupta, Sanjay Singh, and other Indian officials. He is also grateful for the editorial support from the BDC research assistants, promotion by the BDC communications team, contacts provided by Brookings India, and the helpful feedback of family and friends who kindly shared their time. 2 “Joint Statement between the United Arab Emirates and India,” Press Information Bureau of India, 17 August 2015,
1 Ideals, of course, are not necessarily practiced include nonviolence, tolerance, pluralism, and by the majority of society.8 The values discussed hierarchy/prestige, all of which are fairly basic, will conceptually resemble Weber’s “ideal deep-seated, and fundamental.14 types.”9 Even in terms of ideals, great diversity exists within Indian society. The cultural values While those four values appear in the rhetoric of identified will therefore be restricted to those many states, they have particularly influenced that have been dominant throughout history India’s Middle East policy. Although other and that exert influence on society today. values may affect Indian policy, they will not be examined as they are not unique to India, Cultural values are most often expressed and impact the Middle East policymaking of within foreign policy via leaders’ preferences other great powers as well. and perceptions.10 Values motivate, shape, and influence these perceptions and preferences, Nonviolence, as a dominant ideal, spans which can be observed in either discourse or India’s diverse cultural strands. It is particularly state behavior.11 relevant to foreign policy because violence remains the ultimate and final tool in Indian Values modern international relations. Buddhism, and to a lesser extent Jainism, furthered the Within India’s diversity, it is possible to describe transformation of Vedic society that was a set of dominant cultural values capable already taking place with the Upanishads of influencing foreign policy. This is partly (which espouse nonviolence), to one in which because of the cultural integration processes nonviolence was a dominant cultural value.15 which began in medieval times, accentuated The value was further reinforced in medieval under Islamic and British rule, and then times when Hinduism responded to Buddhism 12 furthered under modern nation-building. and Jainism and appropriated some of their The impact of any religion-based differences in values. values is negated by the fact that the majority of the population follows Hinduism, which itself During the independence movement, leaders has been influenced by most of the religious like Mahatma Gandhi defined Indian identity traditions that existed in Indian history, in opposition to the British partly through including the next most populous religion, non-violence.16 Post-independence, the value Islam. was enshrined within the country’s national image. Only a few cultural values have remained dominant throughout Indian history (according Despite several conflicts involving Pakistan, to a survey of major history texts) and are Sri Lanka, and others, in comparison to other relevant to present-day foreign policy.13 These large states, the value of nonviolence has been
8 Sheldon Smith and Phillip D. Young, Cultural Anthropology: Understanding a World in Transition (London: Allyn and Bacon, 1998), 28. 9 Max Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences (New York: The Free Press, 1949). 10 This policy briefing differs from strategic culture studies. By looking at cultural values, it investigates India’s broader, socio-cultural history to determine independent variables whose influence on Middle East policy can be examined. 11 K.J. Holsti, “National Role Conceptions in the Study of Foreign Policy,” International Studies Quarterly, 14 no. 3(1970): 233–309; Rich- ard Ned Lebow, A Cultural Theory of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 41. 12 V. Subramaniam, Cultural Integration in India: A Socio-Historical Analysis (Delhi: Ashish, 1979): 7–8, 46. 13 These are values which rose to prominence during the formative stage of Indian civilization, from the Vedic period through the beginning of the Medieval era. It is these values that express themselves most in the present nation-state. 14 Pethiyagoda, “The Influence of Cultural Values,” 2. 15 A. L. Basham, Wonder That Was India (London: Picador, 2004), 215, 286; W. Rahula, What the Buddha Taught (London: Gordon Fraser Gallery, 1978), 46. 16 M. K. Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 64 (Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Government of India, 1937).
2 Dealing with Delhi: How Culture Shapes India’s Middle East Policy visible in India’s relatively restrained conduct in than any of the other Asian countries listed.23 war, its nuclear posture, and general distaste for Scoring higher on this scale indicates growing comprehensive security strategies.17 Even when tolerance of certain minority groups. While nonviolence was not reflected in India’s actions, domestically, pluralism and tolerance have the diplomatic resources expended to promote been challenged by some political movements a nonviolent image attested to the prevalence over the last two decades, for the most part of the value. The fact that this image at times they have not been dislodged as ideals among compromised strategic interests suggests it is the majority, as witnessed in recent electoral important in itself, rather than purely as a ploy results.24 to further other interests.18 The value ofhierarchy is defined here as Pluralism, defined as people seeing the presence the perception that social relations exist in a of diverse groups, ideas, cultural forms, and hierarchical system, and acceptance of this as beliefs within their society as the norm, has the norm. Hierarchy has had a long history, remained dominant throughout much of stemming from the development of early Indian history and has been an aspiration of the elements of the caste system during the Vedic modern state since independence. It is rooted in period.25 As a result, Indian leaders hold a Hindu and Buddhist philosophical traditions, “hierarchical worldview” where nation-states as well as historical adaptation, absorption, and are arranged as a hierarchy.26 A state’s ranking interaction among various groups.19 can be measured through strategic, military, and economic power, as well as morality, While pluralism entails seeing diversity as a ideology, intellectuality, and culture.27 This normal state of affairs, tolerance means accepting worldview also holds that India should sit at the 20 contradicting ideas, norms, and values. The top of the international order. While the norms ethos of absorbing and accommodating diverse of modern international affairs rhetoric have identities, ideas, and practices, and the ability prevented overt expression of this worldview, to synthesize these sets Indian civilization apart it is clearly visible in India’s actions within key 21 from many others. policy areas, such as nuclear posture.28
In post-independence India, tolerance and The Influence of Values on Middle East pluralism informed the political thinking of Policy the elite.22 According to the 2010-2014 World Values Survey, India scored higher on the axis While values have consistently had a significant of “Survival Values vs. Self-Expression Values” impact on foreign policy, the nature of this impact has varied since independence. Before
17 B. Karnad, India’s Nuclear Policy (Westport: Praeger Security International, 2008), 3. 18 This can be seen in India’s approach to humanitarian intervention when strategic interests in relations with the West were at times out- weighed by the preference for interstate peace. In nuclear posture Delhi promoted its no-first use policy, sometimes at the cost of deterrence (Pethiyagoda, “The Influence of Cultural Values,” 342). 19 Romila Thapar,The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 (Delhi: Penguin Books, 2002), 122. 20 Subramaniam, Cultural Integration in India, 23. 21 Noting some periods of history saw greater tolerance than others; B. Saraswati, Interface of Cultural Identity Development (Delhi: D. K. Printworld Ltd, 1996), 8, 296. 22 Stephen P. Cohen, India: Emerging Power (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2001), 11, 302. 23 See Appendix 1. 24 See pages 7 and 10 of this Policy Briefing. 25 For importance of Vedic period see: Cohen, India: Emerging Power, 9; Pethiyagoda, The Influence of Cultural Values, 61–4; S.L., Raj, and B., Pradhan, “Indian Cultural Values and the Promotion of Human Rights,” Focus, Vol. 8, Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center, 1997. 26 Pethiyagoda, “The Influence of Cultural Values,” 128. 27 George K. Tanham, Indian Strategic Thought: An Interpretive Essay (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1992), 16. 28 Pethiyagoda, “The Influence of Cultural Values,” 5.
3 the early 1990s, India’s foreign policy, which 1950. With regard to Iran, values of tolerance was dominated by the Indian National Congress and pluralism ensured relations did not swing party (henceforth referred to as Congress) was too far in one direction or another following a mix of “Nehruvian” idealism and Indira the 1953 toppling of Muhammad Mossadeq Gandhi’s realism.29 These approaches left and the 1979 revolution. legacies of thinking within the foreign policy establishment, particularly the Indian Foreign India’s 1990s economic crisis and consequent Service (IFS).30 reforms, combined with the end of the Cold War, slightly altered how culture influenced the Cultural values most obviously influenced country’s approach to foreign policy. The overt Nehru’s foreign policy, including relations expression of values in government rhetoric with the Middle East.31 During the post- declined, though values still influenced state independence period from the 1940s to the behavior. 1970s, Nehru founded and led the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM) with Egypt’s Former and current senior Indian diplomats Gamal Abdel Nasser. NAM’s ideology grew handling relations with the Middle East, when largely out of India’s nonviolent independence pressed during interviews on the ultimate movement prioritizing peaceful resolution of justification for many policy positions, international disputes. The movement evinced revealed deep-seated values. “It is just the right a pluralistic character. way to behave,” stated Sanjay Singh, former ambassador and Secretary East at the MEA. He Concomitant with its values-driven support added that India’s international tolerance and for NAM, India’s foreign policy elite identified pluralism among other things stemmed from with and supported the Arab nationalist the country’s internal diversity and political struggle led by Egypt. Nevertheless, India and cultural ethos. Ranjit Gupta stated that maintained a largely neutral position with these values are “part of every Indian,” and that regard to the regional “Arab Cold War” of the India ran its “foreign policy according to its 1950s and 1960s between the secular, socialist- values and civilizational ethos.”34 leaning republics and pro-Western kingdoms.32 Ranjit Gupta, a veteran of India’s Ministry One of the most important ways Indian cultural of External Affairs (MEA), highlighted this values impacted the country’s relations with neutrality principle stating that after the Nehru- the Middle East is through Delhi’s position on Nasser era “we never took sides in any regional international military involvement in the region, dispute.”33 Similarly, despite India’s fervent often through humanitarian interventions. anti-colonialism, distrust of the West, voting India, like many Western states, is relatively against the partition of Palestine and Israel’s democratic, pluralistic, and liberal. Yet, until entry into the United Nations, and voting the last decade, India was one of the leaders of for the condemnation of Zionism alongside the “pro-sovereignty, anti-intervention” bloc of racism, Delhi subsequently recognized Israel in states (which contained most Middle East states
29 Noting that neither was completely idealist or realist. 30 Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s Foreign Policy (Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1961), 102. 31 Rotter, Comrades at Odds. 32 F. Gregory Gause, III, “Beyond Sectarianism: The New Middle East Cold War,” Analysis Paper no. 11, Brookings Doha Center, July 2014,
4 Dealing with Delhi: How Culture Shapes India’s Middle East Policy as well). This was the result of cultural values Given that some Middle Eastern governments in addition to anti-colonialism, material and face significant threat of foreign intervention strategic interests, Third World solidarity, and by extra-regional and regional powers, India’s domestic politics.35 position on intervention helped strengthen its image in several states. While regime change in The West took a more liberal, solidarist view, the Middle East often results in sharp bilateral focusing on individuals and supporting concepts realignments, relations with India remained like “human security.” Western leaders felt the relatively steady. “international community” had a responsibility to intervene in response to certain rights Moreover, the Middle East and West often violations.36 differ when it comes to civil and political rights. India is a democracy with a vibrant civil Indian culture, however, is relatively less society, and, relative to comparable developing individualistic and more collectivist than most countries, has a history of individual rights Western cultures, meaning Delhi focused enshrined in its laws. Despite this, Delhi often more on groups or “peoples” than individuals. opposed enforcing human rights overseas. For Additionally, India’s colonial experience helped most Middle Eastern states, this enhanced sanctify the view that the sovereign state was India’s credibility and value as a partner.40 the legitimate representative of a people within global affairs. As such, Delhi often expressed Post-Arab Spring Strategic Environment greater concern for interstate violence than violence within states such as alleged large- Interviews with current senior MEA officials scale human rights violations.37 India therefore dealing with the Middle East revealed strong opposed humanitarian intervention without continuity in India’s long standing principled state consent, because it represented interstate approach. Pluralism and tolerance were violence.38 evident, with one official highlighting India’s friendly relations with Palestine and Israel, and Furthermore, compared to the texts of most with Saudi Arabia and Iran.41 The official stated Abrahamic religions, Hinduism and Buddhism that India calls for political dialogue in Syria hold mixed to negative views on the idea of and peaceful solutions to conflicts in Libya a “just” or “righteous” war.39 Texts like the and Yemen. “We do not export democracy,” Mahabharata which discuss the morality of he added. Non-interference was preferred. The “dharmayudda” (righteous war) do so in the value of nonviolence remains visible, with clear broader socio-political cultural context in which aversion to military intervention. The MEA nonviolence and no-harm were dominant interviewees believed adhering to values in ideals. Similarly, India applied pluralism and foreign policy served India’s interests. tolerance internationally, accepting different regime types and societies. Delhi’s enthusiasm for a greater strategic role
35 India’s own interventions in its smaller neighbours are examples of where strategic interests overrode values. The role of cultural values is seen more acutely in questions of intervention further afield as here it is more a question of principle. Other states supporting intervention did so partly due to their own values. 36 Nicholas J. Wheeler, Saving Strangers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 2-11. 37 Psychology in India Revisited: Developments in the Discipline, vol. 3, ed. J. Pandey (Delhi: Sage, 2004). 38 Kadira Pethiyagoda, “India’s Approach to the Responsibility to Protect and Humanitarian Intervention,” (working paper, Institute for Eth- ics Law and Armed Conflict, University of Oxford, Oxford, 2013), 5,
5 in the Middle East, made possible by increased tolerance, arguing that religious and spiritual multipolarity, is driven partly by hierarchy and quests need not be tied to a communal prestige. The region is located on the western identity. The framers of the Indian constitution edge of the Indian Ocean, what Delhi sees wanted to give appropriate recognition to the as its “rightful” sphere of influence, a “right” importance of religious pluralism.42 conferred by India’s status as a great power. Legacy of Nehruvian Middle East Policy The India-UAE joint statement made after Modi’s August 2015 visit reflected the While there have been challenges to the continuing impact of cultural values under the Nehruvian identity in domestic politics since current government. Nonviolence appears in the 1990s, in terms of Middle East policy, the two countries’ promotion of peace, support its legacy has remained somewhat resilient. for nonviolent resolution of conflicts, and Congress has been more enthusiastic than the advancement of non-interference in dispute Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in promoting this settlement. The statement further advocated form of identity. tolerance and reflected pluralism. Carrying on the Nehruvian secular legacy
Indian National Identity domestically meant Congress established a constituency among India’s religious minorities, While India’s dominant culture has remained including Muslims. This allowed