ABSTRACT
India is a subcontinental state with enormous diversities in all dimensions of life. By most macro indicators, India is a major power. Its total land area is 3,287,263 km,2 and according to the provisional reports of the Indian Census released on March 31, 2011, the population had increased to 1210 million (1.21 billion) (Census of India 2011). The gross domestic product (GDP) in India was worth 2066.90 billion US dollars in 2014. The GDP value of India represents 3.33 percent of the world economy (India GDP 1970–2016). In 2015, India set aside approximately Rs. 2,46,727 crores (US$40.4 billion) for defence, which exceeded allocation in 2014 by 7.7 percent (Behera 2015). Yet it continues to be a land of considerable poverty and social exclusion, and despite enormous progress in lifting millions over the poverty line and ensuring educational, health, and other social welfare measures in the last two decades in particular, considerable economic disparity plagues the state, thereby complicating its claims to be a major world power. In contrast to many other postcolonial states, however, India has always espoused a remarkably strong interest in international affairs, and Indian elites across party affiliations have considered foreign policy to be one of its highest priorities. This emphasis is the result of three factors: economic necessities, identity consciousness as a civilizational state destined to play a major role in world affairs, and imperatives of national security.
