Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 3-9-2016 History, Identity Politics and Securitization: Religion's Role in the Establishment of Indian- Israeli Diplomatic Relations and Future Prospects for Cooperation Michael Mclean Bender Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC000240 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Asian Studies Commons, International Relations Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Bender, Michael Mclean, "History, Identity Politics and Securitization: Religion's Role in the Establishment of Indian-Israeli Diplomatic Relations and Future Prospects for Cooperation" (2016). 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FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida HISTORY, IDENTITY POLITICS AND SECURITIZATION: RELIGION'S ROLE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INDIAN-ISRAELI DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS by Michael Mclean Bender 2016 To: Dean John Stack choose the name of dean of your college/school Green School of International and Public Affairs choose the name of your college/school This dissertation, written by Michael Mclean Bender, and entitled History, Identity Politics and Securitization: Religion's Role in the Establishment of Indian-Israeli Diplomatic Relations and Future Prospects for Cooperation, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Thomas Breslin _______________________________________ Iqbal Akhtar _______________________________________ Nathan Katz _______________________________________ Mohiaddin Mesbahi, Major Professor Date of Defense: March 9, 2016 The dissertation of Michael Mclean Bender is approved. _______________________________________ choose the name of dean of your college/school Dean John Stack choose the name of your college/school Green School of International and Public Affairs _______________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2016 ii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION HISTORY, IDENTITY POLITICS AND SECURITIZATION: RELIGION'S ROLE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INDIAN-ISRAELI DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATION by Michael Mclean Bender Florida International University, 2016 Miami, Florida Professor Mohiaddin Mesbahi, Major Professor This dissertation aims to provide an understanding of the historical and contemporary dynamics of India’s foreign policy towards Israel within the context of religious identity from 1947 to 2015. A historical analysis of the relationship between India and Israel exhibits the ways that religious identity has served as a primary factor impeding as well as facilitating relations between the two nations. The analysis was done within the context of the historical Hindu-Muslim relationship in India and how the legacy of this relationship, in India’s effort to maintain positive relations with the Arab-Muslim world, worked to inhibit relations with Israel prior to normalization in 1992. However, the five years leading up to normalization, and thereafter, the dynamic is reversed with this legacy playing an increasingly progressive role in India-Israel relations via the social construction of shared meanings and identities between India’s Hindu majority with Israel’s Jewish majority. Social construction of shared meanings and identities are based, in part, within an historical/modern-day context of conflict with a minority, religious Other (Islam), and through bridges of connection iii based in other historical, cultural, social, and religious areas. Formal interviews, archival primary-source analysis of government documents, and secondary-source review were methods employed in the evaluation of the role of religion in India’s foreign policy towards Israel. In conclusion, this dissertation demonstrates the normative and functional effects that religious identities have played, and continue to play, in determining India’s foreign policy towards Israel given the fundamental role religious identity has historically played in the structuring of social perceptions, interactions and worldviews within Indian society up and through the present-day. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................ 6 Research Contribution ................................................................................................. 9 LITERATURE REVIEW AND EXPLANATION OF CONCEPTS, THEORY AND METHOD ......... 13 Hindu-Jewish History ................................................................................................ 14 Politics of Identity ...................................................................................................... 17 Politics of Identity in the Indian-Israeli Relationship ................................................ 19 The Significance of Religion: Hinduism in India and Judaism in Israel as Culture, Nation and Religious Practice .................................................................................... 22 Culture, Nation and Religion .................................................................................. 22 Function and Society: Hinduism in India; Judaism in Israel................................... 36 Theory and Analytical Framework ............................................................................ 46 Methods...................................................................................................................... 53 FOUNDATIONS OF INDIAN-ISRAELI HISTORY: RELIGION-BASED NATIONALISM AND RELATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF IDENTITY FROM PRE-PARTITION TO 1980 .................... 57 Identity Politics: Religion-Based Nationalism’s Birth in Israeli and Indian History .62 Zionism: The Quest for a Jewish National Home ................................................... 62 Religious Identity and Indian Politics: The Rise of Religious Nationalisms.......... 71 The Early Days of Hindu Nationalism.................................................................... 73 Hindutva .................................................................................................................. 76 The Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh ........................................................................... 80 Muslim Nationalism................................................................................................ 85 Partition: The Legacy of Religio-Nationalism ........................................................ 91 The Critical Early Years: Pre-partition India until 1956 ........................................... 92 1956 to 1967: India and the Israeli Interwar Period .............................................. 113 1967 to the Early 1980’s: War in the Middle East and a Missed Opportunity for Change .................................................................................................................... 114 The Analytical Framing of Relations until the 1980’s: The Inhibitive Nature of Religion ................................................................................................................. 125 THE RISE OF THE BJP AND THE CASE FOR RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL ........................... 130 The Histories of Conflict ......................................................................................... 133 India and Pakistan: Nations Divided..................................................................... 133 The Israeli-Palestinian Dilemma........................................................................... 138 Histories of Conflict as Bridges of Connection .................................................... 144 The Formation of the BJP and Normalization of Indo-Israeli Relations ................. 147 The RSS: From Vishwa Hindu Parishad to Bharatiya Janata Party ..................... 148 The BJP and its Establishment .............................................................................. 151 Normalization and the Significance of the Islamic Threat Perception ................. 159 v Non-violent Connections: BJP Understandings of Civilizational Resonance ...... 162 Framing the BJP’s Rise and India’s Establishment of Relations with Israel ........ 170 BEYOND NORMALIZATION: INDIA AND ISRAEL SINCE 1992 ......................................... 177 The Indian-Israeli Security Cooperation: Were Identities in Shared Threat Manifest?.................................................................................................................. 181 India’s Historical Security Concerns: The Threat from State Actors ................... 186 Modern-Day