India's Identity and its Global Aspirations

Global Society

Volumn 26, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 369-385

  Smith, Karen ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPING WORLD; ECONOMIC INTEGRATION; FOREIGN POLICY; GLOBAL ECONOMY; IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS;

INDIA;

EID: 84864021938     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: 1469798X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600826.2012.682275     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. For an overview of India's foreign policy, see the following: Sumit Ganguly (ed.), India's Foreign Policy: Retrospect and Prospect (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010)
2. V.P. Dutt, India's Foreign Policy Since Independence (New Delhi: National Book Trust, 2007)
3. Stephen Philip Cohen, Emerging Power India (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2002). For a fascinating exploration of the changing nature of the identity, or what he calls the "idea of India", by means of a historical perspective, see Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1999).
4. Ted Hopf, "The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory", International Security, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1998), p. 175.
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8. For useful discussions of identity and how it is used in the social sciences, see James Fearon, "What is Identity (as we now use the word)?", Unpublished paper (Stanford University, 1999) available:,http://www.stanford.edu/~jfearon/papers/iden1v2.pdf. (accessed 5 December 2010)
9. Abdelal, Herrera, Johnston and McDermott, op. cit., pp. 695-711.
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12. Hopf, op. cit.
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15. Although an important topic, this will not be the focus of this paper.
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20. For a detailed analysis of how Indian civilization was constructed both by Western and Indian thinkers, see Priya Chacko, Indian Foreign Policy and the Ambivalence of Postcolonial Modernity, unpublished doctoral dissertation, (Adelaide: University of Adelaide, 2007).
21. Cohen, op. cit., p. 8.
22. For an excellent overview of India's aspiration and rise to major power status, see Baldev Raj Nayar and T.V. Paul, India in the World Order: Searching for Major Power Status (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
23. Stephen Cohen, "India Rising", The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 3 (2000), p. 46.
24. I would like to thank Vineet Thakur for introducing me to the scholars I refer to here.
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26. Krishna, op. cit., p. 14.
27. Sikri, op. cit., p. 11.
28. Nayar and Paul, op. cit., also identify various non-material constraints on India's aspiration to achieve great power status, including the legacy of non-violence and resistance to becoming involved in power politics, as well as the perceptions of India held by the West and based in orientalist cultural stereotypes.
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30. Nayar and Paul, op. cit.
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36. Quoted in Cohen, Emerging Power India, op. cit., p. 50.
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46. These discussions took place in December 2010 in Delhi. I would especially like to thank Siddharth Mallavarapu, Vineet Thakur, Samir Saran, and Chris Miller for their valuable inputs.
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53. Ashis Nandy, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983).
54. Ibid., p. 127.
55. Ibid., pp. 125-126.
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63. Currently, two-thirds of India's population is under 35, see Nivedita Mukherjee "Raring to Grow", India Today (23 August 2010), available:, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/113791/Top. (accessed 2 September 2010).
64. Cohen, Emerging Power India, op. cit., p. 37.
65. Quoted in James Lamont, "India: The Loom of Youth", Financial Times (10 May 2010), available:, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8aefdf1e-5c68-11df-93f6-00144feab49a,s01=1.html. (accessed 30 July 2010).
66. Narlikar, "Peculiar Chauvinism", op. cit., p. 75.
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68. Sikri, op. cit.
69. Sagar, op. cit., pp. 805-806.
70. Palat, op. cit., p. 729.
71. Nirupama Rao, "India's Global Role", Address by Foreign Secretary at Harvard, 20 September 2010, available:, http://meaindia.nic.in/mystart.php?id=530116512. (accessed 5 August 2011).
72. Nirupama Rao, "Key Priorities for India's Foreign Policy" Address at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 27 June 2011, available:, http://meaindia.nic.in/mystart.php?id=530115731. (accessed 5 August 2011).
73. Amrita Narlikar, "India and the World Trade Organisation", in S. Smith, A. Hadfield and T. Dunne (eds.) Foreign Policy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 269-284.
74. Ibid., p. 271.
75. Ibid., p. 281.
76. Narlikar, "Peculiar Chauvinism", op. cit., p. 74.
77. Sumit Ganguly, "India's Foreign Policy: Retrospect and Prospect" (n.d.), available:, http://www.ufmg.br/cei/wpcontent/uploads/indianforeignpolicy_ganguly.doc. (accessed 12 June 2010).
78. Subrata K. Mitra and Jivanta Schöttli, "The New Dynamics of Indian Foreign Policy and Its Ambiguities", Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 18 (2007), p. 20.
79. Cohen, Emerging Power India, op. cit., p. 63.