A Study Of Deviant State Behavior: Indian Foreign Policy, 1947-62 by Nabarun Roy A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2011 Nabarun Roy Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-87768-5 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-87768-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada ii Abstract This dissertation argues that between 1947 and 1962, India demonstrated "Deviant State Behavior." In contradistinction to the understanding that a state's capabilities determine its behavior, we contend that India demonstrated great power behavior in spite of possessing middle power capabilities. We point out that India did not possess the material capabilities that could justify its great power behavior; nor did it harbor a great power self-image. Rather, it was the bitter rivalry among the great powers, notably Communist China and the US, and its possible repercussions for order that caused India's deviant behavior. Convinced that a great power war involving nuclear weapons would engulf India, its leaders saw the great power competition as constituting a threat to their country. Since such a threat was not aimed specifically at India, and since its source was not a particular state but rather the condition created by the rivalry among the great powers, we term such threat as "Non- Dyadic Threat." The policies adopted by India - such as signing highly unequal treaties with the Himalayan states and keeping the great powers away from South and South-East Asia — in order to counter such a threat, gave rise to its deviant behavior. The insight of the English School, pertaining to order, is used to understand India's deviant behavior. The English School's claim that order is a fundamental aspect of international society, and that order ensures that the core concerns of all states are upheld, allows us to establish the link between the threat posed to order by the great power rivalry and India's insecurity. The English School's claim that all states in the international society, and not just a few, are responsible for maintaining order is developed further. We argue that if states, by their adherence to the principle of sovereignty, show their commitment to upholding order, iii they also should show concern when order is imperiled, since their security is linked to order. India's behavior is a good demonstration of how deeply states are committed to order and the lengths that they can go to maintain it. iv Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Dissertation Supervisor, Prof. Brian C. Schmidt, for his unwavering support and commitment to the writing of this dissertation. His keen eye for details, exacting standards, and willingness to thoroughly read and comment on multiple drafts of my chapters, played a pivotal role in helping me to clarify my thoughts and sharpen my arguments. I would also like to thank the members of my Doctoral Dissertation Committee — Prof. Harald von Riekhoff and Prof. Mira Sucharov — for their interest in my work, detailed feedbacks, and constructive criticisms. I am indeed fortunate to have been guided and assisted by such an able committee. Many thanks are due to Smita Bhatia and Mukundan Chakrapani for their friendship, advice, and help during the often trying periods of my doctoral work. I am also fortunate to have had Mahesh Shankar - a friend from my JNU days — and his wife, Archana Suresh, living next door in Montreal. Regular getaways to that lovely city and their place were a welcome relief from the humdrums of my Ottawa life. I thank Shaibal Chakraborty, Abhishek Jain, Abhijeet Ray, and Akshay Nehru for their camaraderie and friendship over the years. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to Ma, whose love, understanding, support, and good wishes have been a source of great strength and comfort to me. Words cannot describe what she means to me. V Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Overview 1 1.2 India's Deviant Behavior 3 1.3 Existing Explanations and their Limitations 8 1.4 Alternative Explanation 12 1.5 The English School as an Explanatory Framework 17 1.6 Relevance of the Study 21 1.7 Methodology 26 1.8 Structure of the Dissertation 30 2 Literature Review 33 2.1 Overview 33 2.2 India as a Middle Power in the International Society 35 2.3 Great Powers in the International Society 43 2.4 Material Attributes of the Great Powers 44 2.5 Non-Material Attributes of the Great Powers 50 2.6 Activities of the Great Powers 55 2.7 India and its Material Attributes: 1947-62 59 vi 2.8 India and its Non-Material Attributes: 1947-62 68 2.9 India and its Great Power Activities: 1947-62 81 3 Theoretical Framework 86 3.1 Overview 86 3.2 The Concept of Deviant State Behavior 86 3.3 The Case for the English School Approach 93 3.4 The English School: An Introduction 98 3.5 The Concept of International Society 110 3.6 International Order — Alternative Explanations 115 3.7 International Order according to the English School 121 3.8 International Order and Institutions 124 3.9 Non-Great Powers and International Order 129 3.10 Threats to Order and the Non-Great Powers 138 3.11 Conclusion 143 4 The Basic Determinants of Nehru's Foreign Policy 147 4.1 Overview 147 4.2 India's Non-Dyadic Conceptualization of Threat 150 4.3 The Prevalence of Non-Dyadic Threat Conception 169 4.3.1 Great Power Harmony and International Order 169 4.3.2 Great Power Disharmony, Disequilibrium, and Nuclear Weapons 178 4.4 Conclusion 190 5 India's Relations with Neighbors: A Hostage of Great Power Disharmony 194 5.1 Overview 194 5.2 India-Nepal Relations 198 5.2.1 Background 198 5.2.2 The 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship 201 5.2.3 Indo-Nepalese Relations in Practice 205 5.3 India-Bhutan Relations 217 5.3.1 Background 217 5.3.2 The 1949 Indo-Bhutanese Friendship Treaty 220 5.3.3 Indo-Bhutanese Relations in Practice 223 5.4 India-Sikkim Relations 235 5.4.1 Background 235 5.4.2 The 1950 Indo-Sikkimese Treaty 242 5.5 Conclusion 249 vii 6 Great Power Rivalry in South-East Asia and India's Deviant Behavior 253 6.1 Overview 253 6.2 The Asian Relations Conferences 260 6.3 Conflict in South-East Asia and the Regional Security Architecture 265 6.4 India's Response to the New Security Institutions 269 6.5 Panchsheel as a Weapon of Resisting Great Power Intervention 273 6.6 Panchsheel and Indo-China 275 6.7 Panchsheel and India's Neighbors 284 6.8 The Bandung Conference 293 6.9 Conclusion 305 7 Conclusion 309 7.1 Deviant State Behavior and the English School 309 7.2 Lessons for Contemporary India and its Foreign Policy 312 Bibliography 317 Appendices 332 viii List of Tables Table 2.1: Middle Powers (1957) 37 Table 2.2: Size of Country 60 Table 2.3: Infant Deaths per 1000 Live Births 61 Table 2.4: Deaths from Domestic Group Violence per 100,000 Population (1950-62) 62 Table 2.5: Military Balance (1965-66) 66 Table 2.6: India in Relation to Great Power Indices (Material) 68 Table 2.7: India's Behavior in Comparison to Great Power Behavior 84 Table 6.1: Representation at Regional Conferences in Asia, 1947-55 303 ix List of Figures and Maps Figure 3.1: Dyadic/Conventional Threat 139 Figure 3.2: Non-Dyadic/Unconventional Threat 141 Map 4.1: Tibet Autonomous Region in Relation to India 153 Map 4.2: The Himalayas as a Barrier between India and Tibet Autonomous Region 164 Map 5.1: Map of British India from 1947 (pre-independence) 197 X List of Abbreviations ABM Anti-Ballistic Missile ARC Asian Relations Conference AEC Atomic Energy Commission (United States) AFPFL Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (Burmese political party) CIA Central Intelligence Agency GNP Gross National Product GREF