Diplomatic Apprenticeship: Pre-Independence Origins of Indian Diplomacy and Its Relevance for the Post-Independence Foreign Policy

Abstract

Over the decades of the Indian struggle for independence from Britain Indians had an opportunity, unique in length and scope among peoples emerging from colonial rule, to engage in nascent diplomatic activity. With an organized and articulate movement for independence in place by the 1880's, a sophisticated leadership that engaged in frequent international travel, opportunities afforded to Indians for many years prior to 1947 to work in various departments of the British Indian Civil Service that touched on matters of an international character, and with Indians attending sessions of the League of Nations and Imperial (Commonwealth) Conferences, a variety of means were available to them to gain experience at the international level over an extended period prior to independence. As a result, India emerged from colonial rule with both a reservoir of diplomatic talent and an incipient orientation for its diplomacy, including a range of general foreign policy goals. It was thereby better prepared than perhaps any other country which acquired its independence after World War II to take a prominent place on the global stage quickly and forcefully, and to influence the diplomacy of other countries that were in time to constitute the Third World. It is the purpose of this study, first to set out the nature of Indian participation in both unofficial and official diplomatic activity prior to independence and, then, to examine the implications of this experience for post-independence Indian foreign policy.