10. The Years of Hardened Hostility, 1964–
By the early 1960s, the absence of relations with Israel was well
established, and India began to use this to further its interests in the
Middle East. Following the death of Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1964, Lal
Bahadur Shastri became India’s prime minister. As far as foreign policy
was concerned, his tenure, which lasted less than two years, was a transi-
tory one. Shastri had the disadvantage of being overshadowed by Nehru’s
personality and legacy. Following Nehru’s footsteps, especially on foreign
policy, was the only option available to him. His maiden foreign visit as
prime minister was to Cairo to attend the second summit of the Non-
Aligned Movement. Unlike the Belgrade Summit of 1961, this meeting
was more vocal on Israel. Hosted by President Gamal Abdel Nasser, it
unequivocally condemned the “imperialistic policy pursued in the Mid-
dle East” and endorsed “the full restoration of all the rights of the Arab
people of Palestine to their homeland, and their inalienable rights to self-
determination.” It also expressed its support for “the Arab people of Pal-
estine in their struggle for liberation from colonialism and racism.”^1
More than a de cade before the notorious 1975 UN resolution on Zionism,
the NAM perceived and presented the Palestinian problem as a struggle
against racism. The willingness of the NAM to embrace a narrow Arab
agenda was partly due to the absence of leaders such as Nehru and U Nu,
In retrospect, it was perhaps a big blunder on India’s part not to have established
full diplomatic relations with Israel soon after it recognized the Zionist state in- That would have at least spared some, on both sides, the grandiose specula-
tions about the benefi ts that might have accrued to India had it exchanged diplo-
matic missions with Israel an early date. —M. S. Agwani