Non-alignment: Conception versus praxis

Non-alignment may be displaying green shoots of revival as the world heads into a phase of polarization not witnessed since the Cold War years.

- SHYAM SARAN

Swapna Kona Nayudu's book under review is, therefore, timely and topical. It offers a nuanced and granular analysis of how Jawaharlal Nehru, its chief architect, understood it as both political philosophy and as an instrument of diplomatic practice in the pursuit of India's national interests.

This is a thoroughly well-researched book, with notes, bibliography and index occupying almost half of the text. The author succeeds in offering a fresh and uniquely Indian perspective on how non-alignment became an organizing principle guiding India's engagement with the world during the Cold War years, echoes of which reverberate in both the idiom and substance of India's current foreign policy, though the labels may have changed.