No Strings Attached?: India's Policies and Foreign Aid, 1947-1966

CONTENTS

I.An Assertive Nationalism

1. The Conception of Development
2. The Functions of Aid
3. The Rationale of Non-Alignement

II. Questioning Aid from America (1947-1955)

4. Unfulfilled Expectations
5. From Ideals to Practice
6. Dialogue of the Deaf
7. Discord over Wheat
8. A Troubled Equation

III. Aid as a Component of East-West Competition (1955-1961)

9. Rouble Diplomacy
10. Overcoming the Differences
11. The Road to Washington
12. The Consolidation of Bonds

IV. India at the Crossroads of Aid (1961-1966)

13. The Iniquity of Promises
14. The Call to Arms
15. The Pitfalls of Dependence
16. Aid: An appraisal


India made non-alignment the cornerstone of its foreign policy and opted for a self-reliant model of development whereby external financing was meant to play a marginal role. This uncompromising political credo, which resisted foreign interference, however, had to face harsh economic realities leading to a growing recourse to foreign aid, as well as to military assistance when threats to security began to escalate in the region. This book discusses the repercussions on India's policies that the dependence on foreign aid might have had at the behest of a donor state. It also focuses on the factors that have motivated the United States and the Soviet Union in their aid policy to a country whose geo-strategic importance and whose human and natural resources represented an important component of the Cold War. It also considers the reactions that these motivations gave rise to in India. This study relies extensively upon primary sources, offering a first hand insight into the decision-making process notably with the use of archival material drawn from American, British, and French diplomatic records.