Foreign policy in Amrit Kaal: The present in the past

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had outlined the idea of Amrit Kaal on Independence Day in 2021. In 2024, he explained the concept in a speech at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit: "In the recent past, India completed 75 years of Independence. Now, India is working on its goal for the next 25 years. We have the goal of making it a developed country by the time it celebrates 100 years of Independence. Therefore, this 25-year period is India's Amrit Kaal."

- GUNJAN SINGH

Against this backdrop, Harsh Pant and Anant Singh Mann have attempted to project a foreign policy direction for the next 25 years based on the past 75 years. The notion of rediscovery in the subtitle is interesting.

The authors have shortlisted 75 key developments and events that have played a crucial role in shaping Indian foreign policy, beginning immediately after Independence till India's G20 presidency. The authors must be commended for summarising and organising the Indian government's key foreign policy actions in one place.

One of the major themes running through most of the discussion is the Indian stance and commitment towards the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The authors argue, "The end of the Cold War had also brought an end to India's Third World project and made the ideas of non-alignment irrelevant." It is hard to ignore, however, the idea that discussions on strategic autonomy or the concept of interest-based foreign policy are based on the major tenets of NAM. The term non-alignment may need to be reoriented in a unipolar world but the form tends to be the same.