Quest for a Major Power Status: An Overview of the Challenges Facing India’s Foreign Policy in the 21st Century
Dr. Purusottam Bhattacharya
Ever since India attained its independence in August 1947 the makers of the foreign policy of the newly sovereign state-led by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister-were driven by two principal goals: retention of complete autonomy in the pursuit of its foreign policy to safeguard India’s national interests and the determination to make a major impact on the course of post world war II international relations defined as it was by the cold war rivalry between the United States led ‘western bloc’ and the Soviet Union led bloc located primarily in Eastern Europe.