domestic politics 143same holds true for Jordan. Though couched in liberal expressions such
as justice, morality, and international law, the religious dimension is un-
deniable. As manifested by the Khilafat struggle, Indian Muslims pas-
sionately agitated over developments in the far- off Ottoman Empire. Seeds
of their opposition to the British Empire were sown when their “temporal
ruler” was threatened by imperial designs. Thus even those who venerate
the secular nature of Nehru’s policy had recognized the “overwhelming”
support of the Indian Muslims to Palestinians.^15
By “domestic,” therefore, we refer to Muslims being a dominant factor
in India’s attitude toward Jews and Israel. The Islamic infl uence has to be
located within India’s sociopo liti cal context and its demo cratic polity. At
one level, the involvement of domestic factors in the formulation of India’s
overall foreign policy since in de pen dence has been limited and marginal.
If one excludes the New Delhi– based elite, vast majority of Indians have
been indiff erent toward developments in distant lands. Their daily strug-
gle for survival, illiteracy, linguistic and religious barriers, and acute so-
cial problems involving caste have resulted in foreign policy becoming the
hobby of a select and privileged segment. But over time, some changes
have taken place. However, the liberalization and gradual globalization of
Indian economy during the 1990s aff ected the lives of middle- class Indi-
ans. As a result, the debate on foreign policy has gradually expanded to
the urban middle class and rural poor, whose lives are infl uenced by the
kind of economic agreements and concessions that India makes to foreign
countries and companies. Otherwise, the foreign- policy debate has little
domestic impact or base of support.
There are two notable exceptions. India’s policy toward its immediate
neighbors has strong domestic inputs, especially from border provinces.
Periodic tensions within Sri Lanka, for example, aff ect the southern state
of Tamil Nadu, which has close ethnic links with the Tamils of that is-
land republic. As exemplifi ed by India’s military intervention in the late
1980s, New Delhi’s policies toward the ethnic confl ict have largely been
infl uenced, and at times dictated, by the pop u lar sentiments and po liti cal
compulsions in Tamil Nadu. This holds true for its policy on Pakistan and
Bangladesh, where one notes strong domestic inputs from the states of
Punjab and West Bengal, respectively. In times of crisis in Bangladesh,
Pakistan, or Sri Lanka, the real and immediate impact are felt in the Indian
provinces with a strong ethnonational linkage with those countries. In this
way, India’s policy toward its neighboring countries is shaped more by
domestic po liti cal dynamics than by strict foreign- policy calculations.