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India’s External Relations
The relations were marked with conflicts and cooperation as described below :
(i) There was dispute over Kashmir immediately after the partition. This led to a proxy war.
(ii) The Kashmir conflict did not prevent cooperation between two countries. Both cooperated to restore women abducted during partition to their original families. A dispute over sharing of river waters was resolved with the signing of Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan.
(iii) A war broke out in 1965 in the Rann of Kutch and Jammu and Kashmir which ended with UN intervention. India and Pakistan had signed Tashkent Agreement which was brokered by the Soviet Union.
(iv) In 1971 another war had broken out between India and Pakistan over the question of East Pakistan, where India extended moral and material support to the freedom struggle in Bagladesh. As a result of the war Bangladesh came into existence as a free country.
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“Broadly, non-alignment means not tying yourself off with military blocs... It means trying to view things, as far as possible, not from the military point of view, though that has to come in sometimes, but independently, and trying to maintain friendly relations with all countries. ” —Jawaharlal Nehru
(a) Why does Nehru want to keep off military blocs ?
(b) Do you think that the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty violated the principle of non-alignment ? Give reasons for your answer.
(c) If there were no military blocs, do you think non-alignment would have been unnecessary ?
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