India’s Strategic Vision
D. Suba Chandran
India’s strategic vision, from the beginning, has been shaped by the historical and geopolitical
situation in which it has been placed and how it has perceived its own security. From
independence, one can trace a pattern until the 1990s, in which India responding to the regional
and international geopolitical situation, based on its own security perceptions. To a large extent,
India’s nuclear tests in 1998 acted as a catalyst in reorganizing its security perceptions and, in the
process, its strategic vision as well.
In his speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) in June 2005,
Pranab Mukherjee, India’s defense minister hinted at the reason behind India’s response to
international issues. He said, “Several developments in the 20th century, with their roots in
imperial history, affected India’s traditional relationships with its neighborhood. Perhaps the
most fateful was the partition of India. Viewed from this perspective, it can be argued that the
first half of twentieth century was a decided aberration in the evolution of India’s historical and
traditional relationship with the outside world…While colonialism disrupted our traditional links,
the Cold War delayed their restoration. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War
has provided an opportunity to recover our traditional, historical linkages that had become weak
during the Cold War years, and to rediscover our interest in a wider and increasingly integrated
global community.”
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This essay attempts to look into India’s strategic vision in three parts. The first part
traces the history of India’s vision. The second part looks at the contemporary perceptions and
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“India’s Strategic Perspectives,” Address at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Washington, DC (June 27, 2005), http://www.usindiafriendship.net/viewpoints1/mukherjee.htm.
