Indian Foreign Policy: A Geo-Political Perspective

Two of the most important geographical characteristics of India which are also the most critical both from the point of view of security and development are indeed the Himalayas in the north and the Indian Ocean in the South Strategically speaking they are perhaps the most enduring of all the determinants of our foreign policy, less susceptible to change by the physical phenomenon, but holding a great deal of political importance in the moulding of our strategic environment. Both of them have given India a distinct geographical and cultural identity through the ages and this has not been altered substantially even after the partition of 1947. The Indo-centric character of the region persists even after the emergence of a sovereign Pakistan and independent Bangaladesh. This however does not mean that both these regions have played an identical role in the formulation of our foreign policy perceptions or have been the focal centres of foreign policy planning. What is common about both these regions in the context of foreign policy is that the geo-political significance of both was not fully recognised and there was a certain amount of neglect or complacency which the policy makers exhibited, in the initiat stages after independence at any rate.