The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

by S. Jaishankar

The third phase, from 1971 to 1991, was one of greater Indian regional assertion. It started with the decisive dismantlement of an India-Pakistan equivalence through the creation of Bangladesh, but ended with the IPKF misadventure in Sri Lanka. The larger environment by now was dramatically different, with the Sino-US rapprochement of 1971 upending the strategic landscape. The Indo-Soviet Treaty and the adoption of more pro-Soviet positions on international issues were India’s response to this challenge. It was a particularly complex phase as the US-China-Pakistan axis which came into being at this time seriously threatened India’s prospects. While there were many long-term consequences from it, the shift in India’s posture arose more from other factors. The collapse of the USSR, its close ally, and the not-unconnected economic crisis in 1991 compelled us to look again at the basics of both domestic and foreign policy.