INDIA'S FOREIGN POLICY 55
India's foreign policy clearly reflects the dual tendencies of the Indian bourgeoisie. During the last three decades, India has stood against imperialist pressures, but it has also made humiliating compromises such as the devaluation of the Indian rupee in 1966 and the acceptance of the IMF 'conditionality' clause in 1981. Such a contradictory character of the bourgeoisie demands the exercise of pressure by the mass parties on foreign policy.
India's foreign policy has two faces. Its positive aspect is that India, unlike many Third World countries, is not a part of any imperialist alliance system. Formally or informally, India is not a member of any anti-communist military or political bloc such as the ASEAN countries are. The negative aspects of India's foreign policy flow from its domestic economic and social policies.
C P BHAMBRI*
1 The Economic Times. (Bombay), January 17, 1982.
*Chairman and Professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawabarlal Nehru University, New Delhi.