Opinion C Raja Mohan writes: Jaishankar’s new book questions Nehru’s foreign policy, sparks much-needed debate

At the heart of the book is a rare reflection on the sources of India’s past diplomatic difficulties in engaging Pakistan, China, and the United States — the three most important accounts of Indian diplomacy. Many of these problems have been debated over the decades in the Indian foreign policy community — if only in muted tones. Jaishankar now offers a stark assessment of the consequences, intended and unintended, of the choices that India made in the 1950s.

Jaishankar’s critique of Jawaharlal Nehru’s “naivete” on Pakistan and China and his “ideological predilections” against the West is not made from the easy benefits of clear hindsight. He draws on the perspective of Vallabhbhai Patel, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, B R Ambedkar, and Minoo Masani, who were questioning Nehru’s choices when they were being made in the 1950s. His evaluation of the “roads not taken” in India’s foreign policy during the early years after independence will trigger much political controversy, but it sets the stage for the long overdue historicisation of Indian foreign policy. It helps us break away from the conventional perspective that everything we did in the past was the correct choice for that moment. Jaishankar’s account of how India today traverses those very roads that Nehru rejected provides important insights into Delhi’s current approach to Islamabad, Beijing and Washington — ending the ambiguity on Kashmir’s status within India, turning to hard-nosed realism on China, and pursuing practical engagement with the US and the West.

The small tribe of realists in the Indian foreign policy community will note that Jaishankar has chosen to highlight what has been hiding in plain sight: the many transformations in India’s foreign policy and its decisive break from the Nehruvian worldview. While historians will have their eventual say on the conduct of India’s foreign policy over the last decade, Jaishankar’s first-hand account of its evolution will necessarily become the starting point for reflecting on India’s international relations in the Modi years.

To be sure, the reorientation of India’s foreign policy began in 1991. The collapse of the old economic order in India, the rise of economic globalisation, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War presented a new set of strategic imperatives for India. Economic reforms that began in the early 1990s steadily enhanced India’s power potential, but Delhi seemed hesitant to break from old modes of thinking. Lingering assumptions and anxieties from the past imparted a tentativeness to Delhi’s engagement with the world and prevented it from taking full advantage of India’s emerging possibilities.

Jaishankar’s delineation of the deliberate and bold foreign policy departures in the last decade is about ending India’s “historic hesitations” in dealing with the world. The book will be of wide interest amidst India’s rise on the global stage and its new salience in regional and international politics.

Jaishankar’s account goes beyond the “what” and “how” of India’s new foreign policy under Modi. He also delves into the “why” of India’s transformation — the very different worldview that Modi has brought to bear, a new sense of self-assurance, and a determination to pursue a foreign policy that puts “India first”. One important part of the foreign policy transformation has been the quest to dig deep into India’s tradition and culture and build a new intellectual scaffolding to buttress a foreign policy rooted in realism.

In his first book, The India Way, Jaishankar turned to the Mahabharat, and in the second, he looked to the Ramayan. The very title of the book, Why Bharat Matters reflects the Modi government’s controversial ideological commitment to “decolonisation” and “indigenisation”. Not everyone will agree with Jaishankar’s conclusion that “India matters because it is Bharat”. But debating that proposition and many other unconventional ones in Jaishankar’s book should bring a new life to the Indian foreign policy discourse long stifled by the allure of consensus and unanimity.

The writer is contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express