India and the Middle East : constancy of policy in the context of changing perspectives, 1947-1986

• Main Author: Mudiam, Prithvi Ram
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) 1991
• Subjects: 327.54056
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.645274

This study seeks to critically examine India's relations with the Middle East in terms of India's political, security and economic interests in the region between 1947 and 1986. It tries to define India's general foreign policy objectives and the means and strategies she adopted to realise them in relation to the Middle East. The study focuses on the misperceptions and fallacies that governed India's interaction with the region which over the years artificially restricted India's manoeuvrability and policy options in the region. The first chapter provides a historical backdrop of independent India's foreign policy with special reference to the Middle East. The second and the third chapters focus on India's politico-diplomatic interests in the region by examining India's bilateral ties with four most important states in the region, namely Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The fourth chapter critically evaluates India's security concerns in the region with special emphasis on developments in the 70s and 80s and India's responses to them. The fifth chapter seeks to quantify India's economic interaction with the region and endeavours to put India's economic stake in the region in perspective. Chapters six and seven concentrate on India's relations with Israel and the PLO respectively and emphasise the need for India to take a fresh look at the problem in the light of new and far-reaching developments in the region. This study takes the view that the constancy of India's Middle Eastern policy is more an outcome of lack of imagination and an absence of subtlety and sensitivity on the part of Indian political elite than any unwavering commitment on their part to any high principles and ideals. It also underlines the untenability of such policy in future in the context of rapidly changing political and strategic landscape of the Middle East.