Hindu Nationalists and the Cold War

Abstract

It is widely believed that at the time of Independence there was in India a broad consensus on non-alignment. This consensus, crafted by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, is depicted as having steadily weakened over subsequent decades, eventually collapsing when diplomatic isolation and near bankruptcy toward the end of the Cold War prompted India to revitalize relations with the West. The evidence does not support this narrative, however. Drawing on a variety of sources, including Constituent Assembly debates and prominent essays, this essay shows that there were throughout the Cold War voices—often Hindu nationalists otherwise suspicious of modernity—calling for closer relations with the West. Though these voices were subdued, recollecting them reveals that post-Cold War declarations of a “natural alliance” between India and America in particular are not a new development, but instead the fruition of a longer view of the West’s significance.