International Relations and Foreign Policy in India

This chapter explores the reasons that can explain the perceived failure of international relations (IR) discourses in India regarding the policy-oriented ambitions of the literature and focuses on sociological fieldwork undertaken in 2012. It describes the arguments of Indian scholars dealing with the traditional lack of independence of IR towards the Indian State. The chapter investigates factors more directly linked with the organisation of the discipline itself. It discusses whether the scope of IR in India is really favourable for policy-oriented studies. The chapter explores how academic and funding weaknesses may make it difficult for Indian IR to take some critical perspective from the Indian context. Indian scholars tend to designate the relationship between IR and the Indian State as the main factor explaining the incapacity of IR in India to produce a discourse that efficiently addresses the new challenges experienced by this country.