2.2.2. Changes with Continuity

In this phase, India’s foreign policy sought to sustain “two competing visions of world order”. On the one hand, India still supported the cause of decolonization and continued to lead the cause representing the weaker states in the international system. For example, it remained a staunch opponent of the apartheid regime in South Africa; it was an unyielding supporter of the Palestinian cause. On the other hand, it also came to accept the importance of defence preparedness and increasingly overcame its reservations about the use of force in international politics.

Thus, in 1971 faced with the influx of millions of refugees from East Pakistan after the outbreak of a civil war, India quickly moved ahead with a strategic vision to devise a political and diplomatic initiative backed by military action against Pakistan. This strategy involved a security understanding with the Soviet Union to counter possible Chinese involvement. Thus, India signed a 20-year Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union in August 1971. With the political leadership securing its interests on the northern borders, Indian

armed force moved swiftly into East Pakistan and helped the Mukti Bahini and the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in the establishment of Bangladesh as an independent nation.