On 2 March 2022, almost all 193 United Nations member-states cast their votes, during an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly, on a resolution demanding an immediate, complete, and unconditional withdrawal of Russia’s military forces from Ukraine. A total of 141 members voted in favour and five opposed the resolution. There were 35 abstentions, including India and China. The vote demonstrated ambivalence in some quarters over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. India’s particular stance can also be considered the latest expression of its long-term solidarity with Russia.
India’s current alliance with Russia dates back to 13 April 1947, when India first established diplomatic relations with Russia’s predecessor- the Soviet Union. The hastily-organised Partition of India heralded a long-running, and yet-to-be-resolved, conflict with neighbouring Pakistan over possession of the disputed northern territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Western world soon took sides and united behind Pakistan, forcing India to turn to the Soviet Union for assistance. The Soviets concurred with India that Kashmir was a bilateral matter involving two neighbours that did not justify international intervention or mediation, accordingly vetoing UN Security Council resolutions 122 (1957) and 307 (1971). The Russians have continued to support India over Kashmir. Most recently, in 2019, Russia supported India’s withdrawal of “special status” from Jammu and Kashmir, when it revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, stripping the state of its autonomy so that it could be “integrated” with the rest of India.
India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, chose to be guided by the Soviet system of a centrally-planned, or command, economy, while remaining politically “non-aligned”. His developing relationship with the Soviets was boosted after his first, highly successful, visit to the Soviet Union in 1955. Inspired by Gosplan, Russia’s State Planning Committee, the Indian government set up a Planning Commission and initiated a five-year planning cycle, starting with the First Five-Year Plan (1951-1956). The Planning Commission was only dissolved in 2014 and replaced by NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog, which lasted until 2017, the year when the Twelfth and final Five-Year Plan ended. Just as Russia has moved on to embrace some principles of the market economy, India is itself now transitioning into a market economy-one that is particularly coveted by hitherto reluctant Western investors.
During the golden years of Indo-Soviet friendship, cultural diplomacy cemented trading relationships, especially in the realm of the visual arts. Leading Indian actor Raj Kapoor visited Russia in 1954 as part of a 14-member delegation to the Moscow Film Festival, introducing Awaara (The Vagabond) to a receptive Muscovite audience. India’s home-grown version of Charlie Chaplin, another Soviet favourite, helped create a period of Russian interest in Bollywood films from the 1950s onwards. The cultural exchange extended to other areas, such as literature, theatre, music, and dance and spawned many Indo-Soviet cultural societies during a period of growing amity.
The Soviets demonstrated their support for India in no uncertain terms on 18 December 1961, when they vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution condemning India’s military takeover of the Portuguese colony of Goa, which had just ended 450 years of foreign rule. India, in turn, was the only non-aligned nation to abstain from a vote condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in the sixth emergency special session of the UN General Assembly in January 1980.
India’s military was in poor shape shortly after independence, and its vulnerabilities were exposed by the Chinese invasion of India in 1962. India found itself in an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment, threatened by Pakistan, China, and the Cold War objectives of America, which actively fostered strategic alliances with Pakistan. The Indian government had to counterbalance Chinese and American hegemony in South Asia by cultivating a partnership with the Soviet Union and its successor, the Russian Federation. The Soviets, followed by the Russians, strengthened, and continue to bolster, India’s military capabilities. As of 2022, it is believed that anywhere between 60 to 85 per cent of India’s military hardware is of Russian origin. India is currently Russia’s largest arms importer, accounting for around 28 per cent of Russia’s global arms sales. Russia’s contributions include guns, tanks, fighter jets, frigates, aircraft carriers, submarines, and missile systems such as the S-400 surface-to-air missile system and Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles. Russia was often the only global power willing to supply India’s needs, even leasing a nuclear-powered submarine to India as far back as the 1980s.
The Soviet Union was India’s largest trading partner until its collapse in 1991. The Soviets invested in India’s domestic industries, such as oil, gas, coal mining, steel, pharmaceuticals, heavy machinery, precision instruments, among others, thereby promoting the industrialisation of India. India has continued to trade with Russia, despite recent economic sanctions against the Russian state, agreeing to purchase 15 million barrels of crude oil at a discounted price from Russia. Western nations do not, however, wish to alienate India despite its trading intentions, leading White House Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki to state that Indian oil purchases from Russia do not violate US sanctions.
The Indian and Soviet foreign ministers cemented their nation’s mutual ties when they signed the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Co-operation on 9 August 1971. These ties have been strengthened under Putin, through a Declaration of Strategic Partnership (October 2000), followed by a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership (December 2010). Putin has maintained strong ties with India since 2000, supported by Annual Summit meetings between India’s Prime Minister and Russia’s President, which alternate between India and Russia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong support for Russia has been rewarded by Russia’s highest state award, the Order of St Andrew the Apostles, granted by Executive Order signed by Putin on 12 April 2019.
India retains strong links with Russia, even as Western nations seek new alliances with its new incarnation as an emerging global economic powerhouse. Within India, political parties of all persuasions and much of the general public see Russia as a more dependable supporter of India’s interests when compared with the US and other Western nations, as judged by past actions. India is no longer anyone’s puppet, and under Prime Minister Modi is carving out its destiny, making its own choices, whatever you might think of them, along the way.
Ashis Banerjee