Spectrum Test: The Evolution Of The Nationalist Foreign Policy - UPSC MCQ

Maharaja Rao Ganga Singh signed the "Treaty of Versailles" on behalf of India on 28th June 1919. Maharaja Rao Ganga Singh was the youngest son of Maharaja Lal Singh. During the first world war, Maharaja Rao Ganga Singh commanded the Bikaner camel corps which served in France, Egypt, and Palestine.
so 1 st statement is true

• It participated in the Washington Conference on Naval Armaments in 1921-22. From 1920 there was an Indian high commissioner in London. 

• Even before the First World War, Indian nationals were staffing a few diplomatic posts. It was no accident that Indians formed the largest and most influential non-Western contingent in the United Nations and allied agencies very soon after independence.

• The basic framework of India's foreign policy was structured much before 1947. 

• A significant and inevitable fallout of the Westernninfluence on the nationalist intelligentsia was a growing interest in and contact with the dominant international currents and events. 

• Gradually, the nationalist thinkers realized that colonialism and imperialism had an international character and much wider implications.

• The nationalists supported the British Indian Government to believe that Britain would apply the same principles of democracy for which they were supposed to be fighting. 

• After the conclusion of the War, Congress insisted on being represented at the Peace Conference. In 1920, Congress urged the people not to join the Army to fight in the West. 

• In 1925, the Congress condemned the dispatch of Indian Army to suppress the Chinese nationalist army under Sun-Yat-Sen.

• In 1926 and 1927, Nehru was in Europe where he contacted the socialists and other leftist leaders. Earliern Dadabhai Naoroji attended the Hague session of the International Socialist Congress. 

• He was a close friend of H.M. Hyndman, the famous socialist. Lajpat Rai also contacted the American socialists during his visit to the USA from 1914 to 1918. Gandhi had close relations with Tolstoy and Rolland Romain. 

• In 1927, Nehru attended the Congress of Oppressed Nationalists at Brussels on behalf of the Indian National Congress. The conference was organized by political exiles and revolutionaries from Asia, Africa and Latin America, suffering from political and economic imperialism. 

• Nehru was one of the honorary presidents and Einstein, Madam Sun-Yet-Sen, Rolland Romain and George Lansbury. Nehru came to understand the international character of US imperialism during his European experience.

• The 1930s saw the rise of Fascism in Europe and the struggle against it. The nationalists saw imperialism and fascism as organs of capitalism. 

• They support the struggle against fascism in other parts of the world in Ethiopia, Spain, China, and Czechoslovakia. 

• In 1939, at the Tripuri session, the Congress dissociated itself from the British policy which supported fascism in Europe. In 1939, the Japanese attack on China was condemned by the nationalists. The Congress also sent a medical mission under Dr Atal to China.

• On April 29, 1954, Panchsheel, or the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, were first formally enunciated in the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet region of China and India. 

• It was stated in the preamble to this agreement that the two governments had resolved to agree based on five principles, namely, 

• (i) Mutual respect's territorial integrity and sovereignty 

• (ii) Mutual non-aggression 

• (iii) Mutual non-interference 

• (iv) Equality and mutual benefit 

• (v) Peaceful coexistence.

• Most Indians think 'Panchsheel was Jawaharlal Nehru's valuable contribution to the world. 

• It received world attention when he and Zhou Enlai issued a joint statement in Delhi on June 18, 1954. 

• In fact, the credit for formulating these principles should go to Zhou. While receiving the Indian delegation to the Tibetan trade talks on December 31, 1953, he enunciated them as "five principles governing China's relations with foreign countries". 

• T.N. Kaul, a joint secretary in the external affairs ministry at the time or Director-General for Asian Affairs in Delhi, was impressed and conveyed his appreciation and the significance of principles to Nehru, with whom he enjoyed a close rapport. 

• Nehru agreed, and Kaul took the initiative to mention them at the agreement's draft text.

• Nonalignment is the characteristic feature of foreign policy. India was one of the founder-members of NAM. In the Cold War era, India refused to favour any superpower and remained non-aligned.

• Nonalignment, how not to be confused with neutrality. A neutral state remains inactive or passive during hostilities between two blocs. Neutrality is maintained in times of war, whereas nonalignment has relevance both in times of war and peace. 

• Neutrality is equivalent to passivity; a neutral country has no opinions (positive or negative) on issues. However, adherence to nonalignment is to have positive and constructive opinions on international issues. 

• India has firmly and convincingly asserted it's non-aligned' and not 'neutral' stand on various issues. Nonalignment as one of India's foreign policy principles attempts to promote international peace, disarmament, and territorial independence. 

• It aims to democratize international relations by putting an end to imperialism and hegemony and establishing a just and world order.