Domestic Support for Mrs. Gandhi's Afghan Policy
The Soviet Factor in Indian Politics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9778182 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Partha S Ghosh (0000-0002-9953-9131, corresponding author), Rajaram Panda |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 261-279 |
| Publication date | 1983-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asian Survey (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-4687 • E-ISSN: 1533-838X |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2644273 |
| OpenAlex | W1997126408 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 3 |
IN ONE of those strange tricks that history springs on an unsuspecting world, the USSR massively intervened in Afghanistan in December 1979. Occurring at a time when the Janata government in India, which had emphasized genuine nonalignment in foreign policy, had spent itself, and elections were imminent, the untimely intervention laid the new Indian government's foreign policy squarely on the line. It is to the credit of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the architect of India's foreign policy for more than a decade, that she proved equal to the challenge after nearly three years out of office. The new government in India, in its apparent pro-Sovietism on the issue-and notwithstanding its professions of nonalignment-has stood apart from a great many nonaligned nations and a large part of the third world. Our concern here is to assess to what extent the world view of Indians and their support of Mrs. Gandhi enabled her to take this stand after her return to office in 1980. Even before she was formally reinstated as Prime Minister on January 20, 1980, after her landslide victory, Mrs. Gandhi had taken charge of India's strategy on the Afghan issue. On January 12, she instructed Brajesh Mishra, the Indian envoy at the United Nations, to make the following points in a statement on India's stand: (1) the Soviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan on December 26, 1979, at the request of the Afghan government; (2) while India was against the presence of foreign troops and bases in any country, it had no reason to disbelieve a friendly country like the Soviet Union when it said that it would withdraw troops from Afghanistan when asked to do so by the government in Kabul; (3) India hoped that the Soviet Union would not violate the independence of
Afghan · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Factor (programming language · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Studies and Conflicts
| Citations per year | 0.06 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2010 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |