International Studies Journal (ISJ)

International Studies Journal (ISJ)

The Role of Indian Leaders’ Perception in the Political-Economic Development in India and its Impact on the Country’s Foreign Policy

Document Type : Original Independent Original Article

Authors
Majidreza Momeni 1
Sayed Akbar Sajjadi 2
1 Assistant Prof. at International Relations Dep., Allameh Tabataba'i University.
2 Ph.D. of International Relations at Allameh Tabataba'i University.
10.22034/isj.2025.463828.2189
Abstract
India, one of the emerging economic powers, has experienced significant growth in the last few decades. In 1991, this country started organizing the political economy, which today is recognized as a growing economic power in the international arena. The purpose of this research is to examine the trends governing the political economy of India, focusing on the perceived role of the country's leaders. Therefore, this research tries to address the basic question of what effect did the perception of Indian leaders have on the political economy and subsequently the foreign policy of this country? In response to this question, the hypothesis is raised that the leaders of India, based on their perception of the unfavorable domestic economic conditions and the order governing the international system, by reorganizing the economic-political structure in line with economic-commercial interests, play an important role in politics. They have had an interactive foreign policy and aligned with the international order. In this research, it has been tried to use the method of sample research and trend analysis with an explanatory approach in data analysis. The findings of the research show that with the rise of the leaders after Nehru with a pragmatic approach that was based on their realistic understanding of India's poor economic situation, the new economic and political structure of India was formed, and after that the politics India's foreign policy has changed from idealism and non-commitment to pragmatic foreign policy and convergence with the structure of the international system.

Highlights

Introduction

India has struggled with difficulty to provide the daily needs of its citizens for some decades. The people in this country were poor and not hoping for the better life. Everything was in the control of government and its economy was centralized and state- controlled. Jawahar Lal Nehru was the first leader with its anti-west and anti-imperialism attitude who was not in a good deal with capitalism and liberal system after the independence. Therefore, during his leadership period, the political-economic structure in India was based on socialist perspective and centrally-planned. He strived very seriously to deal with and enhance the unpleasant situation with such an attitude. However, the idea and socialist structure did not help him to deliver and materialized his plans for the development of India. That’s why poverty and disordered economy have deprived the people and government of India from having a prosperous life and developed state, until the new leaders with transformational and practical attitudes came into power who have paved the way to enter a new path and distanced themselves from earlier perspective of idealism of Nehru. The post-Nehru leaders’ positive perspective of interaction with the West and established international order, were seeking to reach new radical changes in the Indian political-economic structure. The changing Indian elites’ perspective in the field of political economy have brought about positive and pleasant consequences for the Indian people and inspired the poor people in the country by giving them the hope for a better and prosperous life. So much so that converted India into a new emerging power and a key actor in the international scene. Thus, one could say that the new developments, as a matter of fact, are the results of leaders’ perception of the internal needs and dominant situation in the international system which made them to admit the changes in the political-economic structure in India which consequently spilled over to its foreign policy. In this regard, the objective of the present research is to study the dominant trends in the Indian political economy focused on the perceptions of the leaders in this country.

 

Methodology

This research is a case study using trend analysis method to study the role of Indian leaders’ perceptions in shaping the political economy of this country in order to attain a precise understanding of the role of leadership, the political-economic developments and its impact on the foreign policy of India. The research strategy is based on deductive approach while using neoclassical realism as theoretical framework which considers the internal concerns of the states such as perceptions and understanding of the leaders in their external behaviors and attitudes as the independent variable. Therefore, there has been an attempt to get to know and explain the tendency and attitudes of the leaders based on their perception and understanding of international environment as well as dominant internal conditions in order to gain a precise analysis of the research topic.

 

Result and discussion

Considering neoclassical realism theory that emphasizes the role of internal concerns such as leaders’ perceptions of international environment as well as internal conditions which affect the behaviors and tendencies of foreign policies of the states made us to come to know that this theory could significantly explain the Indian leaders’ role in the developments of political economy and foreign policy in India. Thus, this research studies the dominant trends in the political economy of India in the context of different leadership courses in the country which rightly indicated that the leaders realistic consideration of the incompatible internal economy and established international order on the one hand and distancing from ideological thought and idealist perspective on the other hand, changed their mindset by avoiding and distancing the earlier Nehruvian socialism and centrally-planned and state-controlled economy while getting in line with positive perception of opening the country’s doors to the external world and gradual economic reforms which have eventually brought about serious and significant changes in the political economy of the country. Consequently, such radical changes pursued India toward open economy and free market and consideration of the role private section. As a result, the country’s foreign policy has also been affected by the new understanding of political economy and changed its tendency from idealism and policy of non-aligned movement to pragmatism and interactions with international system, particularly with the West toward economic development based on national interests which has placed the expansion of good relations with other states and utilizing the trans-borders capacities and economic development focusing the national interests in the Indian elites’ agenda. Thus, the Indian leaders’ perceptions and understanding in developing and organizing the new political economy as well as adapting the practical policy played an important and fundamental role. So much so that led to a great change in the Indian indigenous model of economy to exogenous model of economy admitting the open economy and liberal system. Therefore, the developments in the political economy and consequently the foreign policy of India are the result of realistic perceptions and understanding of the Indian leaders and elites from dominant situation in the international economy as well as the poor economic conditions in India that has made a great change which caused millions of Indian people get out of extreme poverty. Hence, the Indian status in international arena changed from a poor and unorganized state into a country known as emerging economy and power and this actually brought about fame and respect for India as a country committed to the international order and made it as an important player in the global environment.

 

Result

Generally, our study of the data of the trends of political economy as well as the foreign policy of India demonstrated that economic developments and changing foreign policy have coincided with changing the leadership in the country.

 with coming of pragmatist and transformational leaders, India has been converted form a poor country and broken economy into one of the economic and commercial powers in the international arena. Thus, the leadership perception and understanding factor (independent variable) has a significant impact on the economic development (mediating variable) as well as the foreign policy (dependent variable).  Finally, it should be emphasized that the research hypothesis is approved.

Keywords
India
political economy
leaders
foreign policy

Subjects

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