India’s Policy towards Iran

Abstract

The article examines the ambiguities and complexities in India’s Iran policy. This is an attempt to understand India’s relations with West Asia through the prism of India’s Iran policy. This article hypothesizes that India’s Iran policy is the prisoner of India’s ambitions and its relations with major powers vis-à-vis other West Asian actors. In a multi-layered approach, the article captures tensions between policy and politics. Prior to the signing of Iranian Nuclear Deal, Iran–India relations suffered due to US pressure and India could not forge independent policy towards Iran. At this point of time, situation is not much different. The article is an attempt to understand why India has failed to maintain the fine balance between different actors in West Asia’s political scape.