Nationalist Indian Attitudes Towards Asia: A Troublesome Legacy for Post-Independence Indian Foreign Policy

Asia Is Not One

“…Before World War II, especially around the time of the 1927 Congress of the Oppressed Nationalities, a number of leaders within the Indian National Congress (a group that was believed to include Mohandas Gandhi, C. R. Das, and later Nehru) supported the idea of an "Asian federation" to organize joint struggle against Western colonialism. 10 Regionalism in this sense was not only compatible with, but also a bulwark for, Asia's restoration and rejuvenation. 11 Certainly Ho Chi Minh was keen to use regional cooperation to further the cause of Vietnamese independence.…”

The Third World before Afro-Asia

“…Meanwhile, D. S. Senanayake's comment that there was "an undercurrent of apprehension regarding the long-term possibility of Indian expansion involving Ceylon" illustrated how political tensions between nations remained under the surface of the conference discussions. 35 As the Inter-Asian Conference discussed their recommendations, the UN Security Council met at Lake Success to decide how to respond to the ongoing crisis in Indonesia. The Indian delegation leader Benegal Rau called for reconstituting the Good Offices Committee as a full commission to enable the council's decisions to be implemented and announced that a conference was about to convene in New Delhi "to explore the possibilities of a peaceful solution, and to strengthen the hand of the Security Council. "…”

Conferencing the international at the World Pacifist Meeting, 1949

“…The conference helped craft a relationship between a newly independent India and the (Keenleyside, 1982). Nowhere was this more evident than the geography of the conference itself; presided over in the national political centre of New Delhi and hosted by of State and leading political figures.…”