EVENTS

India’s backing of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council in the 1950s has confounded many students of Indian foreign policy and International Relations. At a time when India-China relations were becoming increasingly strained, and there was a clear realisation that China would be a challenge for Indian foreign policy, why did India support PRC’s cause for the permanent member’s seat at the UN? Many have underlined the idealist streak in Nehru’s approach towards not only the PRC but also International Relations in general. This Wednesday Seminar presentation goes beyond such tropes. It engages with information gleaned from historical records and insights from scholarly works to delineate the reason why India backed PRC on the issue. It underlines that India’s motivations were undergirded by a social understanding of the dynamics of IR. It is argued that India under Nehru had drawn specific lessons from the history of the early twentieth century whereby the negative repercussions of ostracising materially capable states were seen to be disastrous. It was this aspect of IR that shaped India’s basic approach towards the PRC on the question of its membership to the Security Council.

Speaker

Nabarun Roy is Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, South Asian University, New Delhi. He was awarded Doctor of Philosophy from Carleton University, Canada. His research interest lies in theories of International Relations, Indian foreign policy, great power politics, and wars in international relations. He also seeks to adopt a historical orientation towards understanding IR. He has contributed to journals like The International History Review, Diplomacy and Statecraft, Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, India Review, India Quarterly, and Studies in Indian Politics.

Chair

Atul Bhardwaj is an academic and strategic affairs analyst, currently affiliated with the School of Policy and Global Affairs at City, University of London. His research examines the intersection of geopolitics, maritime strategy, and shifting connectivity paradigms. This interest was deepened during his recent two-year fellowship at the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML), New Delhi, where he investigated emerging Eurasian land bridges and their challenge to established maritime orders. He is the author of India-America Relations (1942-62): Rooted in the Liberal International Order (Routledge 2019) and he has been a regular contributor to the Strategic Affairs column of the Economic and Political Weekly since 2013.

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