Tracking foreign policy

THE author was present at the creation of Nehru's Foreign Office. He has seen from scratch the origin and evolution of India's foreign policy and of the instrument to implement it - the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). His own strong contribution to MEA has brought him the admiration of his peers. He is applauded for his wide mental horizon that takes him into realms well beyond the bounds of narrow bureaucratic professionalism. Unlike the tribe of examination wallahs who are the foot soldiers - and also the generals - of today's MEA, Damodaran grew up in the last, decisive phase of the national movement for independence. The passions and ideals of that time helped shape his thinking, and continue to inform his views about the direction and purpose of our diplomatic activity. His writing recalls for us the idealistic vision that informed the early formulation of newly independent India's view of its place in the world, from which we continue to draw sustenance today.

Since he retired from MEA, Damodaran has been a sought-after speaker and a prolific writer on foreign affairs. Beyond Autonomy is the latest volume of his writings. It collects several of his articles written chiefly over the last decade. Though it sets out to examine the roots of India's foreign policy, it is not merely a look back at the policies most closely identified with India - nonalignment, anti-colonialism, solidarity with the emerging world among them - but also a look into the future. It is addressed to "the young Indian student of world affairs", an invocation that tells us how much of the teacher and educator there is in Damodaran. His interest in ideas, the perspective he offers on recent events, can indeed enlighten and enthuse the young student.

Typically, a Damodaran essay takes a theme - "Ideologies in Flux" is one of them - and goes into a sweeping survey illustrating many of the concepts relevant to his chosen subject. In other hands, this could lead to vagueness but the author is very widely read and can bring in a number of diverse sources and authorities into his narrative without losing the thread. There is thus a rich intellectual substance to his writing. His analyses of events and their significance goes well beyond what is normally encountered in media commentaries and reports.

Damodaran does not set out to express any radically new or different ideas about the sources or direction of India's foreign policy. Intellectually, he is an unrepentant Nehruvian, though, typically, he does not proclaim it. It is just that the cast of mind and the underlying values that inform his analyses are steeped in the early ethos of India's emergence, when Nehru's thought shaped the reflexes of the nation. For instance, he describes secularism as "the most important single concept which has made the Republic of India a functioning nation-state during difficult times". No ambiguities here, none of the ifs and buts that so often accompany current discussion of the subject. In some ways, this collection of essays provides an extended exegesis of Nehru's thinking on foreign affairs. In his deep and sympathetic study of Nehru, the author has unearthed some highly interesting material, as in the piece entitled "Before Non- Alignment," where he is able to trace the first seed of the non- aligned movement back to a Nehru speech of 1927.

While many of the articles in this collection look back to recent history, several others address issues of current interest. With Damodaran's intellectual moorings, it comes as no surprise that he is somewhat reserved in his assessment of the Indo-U.S. relationship in its current manifestation - there is no hint in his essay on this subject of the "natural alliance" that the current rulers of the country have discerned. By contrast, the author, an acknowledged expert on the erstwhile USSR, has much to say about the possibilities of Indo-Russian ties in the post- Soviet era. He is cautious about China, where he sees only limited scope for cooperation. In his varied assessments of present day challenges, he provides us with a view that is in some respects an alternative to the received wisdom of the day. This is salutary and welcome.

The author avoids the jargon that diplomats are prone to use and the attitudes that go with it. Not for him the unfeeling calculations of realpolitik as the supposed bedrock of diplomacy.

He sees diplomacy in an altogether different light, as a means for reasonable, rational people to sit together and sort out their problems - to achieve, in his phrase, a "sane and moderate solution of our divergencies". He adds: "What is important in the last analysis ... is to be generous and not to impose upon each other our perception of what the other should be like". Another typical thought: "Gentle, civilised men can make a success of even temporary solutions to permanent and difficult problems". He differentiates between foreign policy, where we can be tough and confrontationist, and diplomacy, where we should be nuanced and mild. These quotations give the temper of the man. Reason, persuasion, goodwill are the currency in which he deals, not force, rhetoric, coercion. Today's diplomats may find all this terribly old fashioned, not really relevant to the current push for a place at the top table. But we are reminded in this volume of the place of principle in external relations and of some of the qualities required of a diplomat.

This collection adds up to an entertaining and instructive account of Indian foreign policy by someone who has been very close to its sources for a considerable length of time. He can be bold and innovative - as when he finds that U.S. mediation or Oslo-type methods may have their use in Jammu and Kashmir - but the real value of the book is to take us back to the basics. It is a valuable description of the essential structure of India's foreign policy, and as such it has much to offer to any student of the subject.

Beyond Autonomy, Roots of India's Foreign Policy,

A.K. Damodaran, Somaiya Publications, Mumbai, New Delhi, 2000, p.246, Rs. 350.

SALMAN HAIDER The Book Review * * * The Book Review Literary Trust P.B. No: 5247, Chanakyapuri New Delhi 110021

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