India was among the original members of the United Nations that signed the
Declaration by United Nations at Washington on 1 January 1942 and also
participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization
at San Francisco from 25 April to 26 June 1945. As a founding member of the
United Nations, India strongly supports the purposes and principles of the UN
and has made significant contributions to implementing the goals of the
Charter, and the evolution of the UN's specialized programmes and agencies.
India is a charter member of the United Nations and participates in all of its
specialised agencies and organisations. India has contributed troops to United
Nations peacekeeping efforts in Korea, Egypt and the Congo in its earlier years
and in Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Liberia, Lebanon and Rwanda in recent years, and
more recently in the South Sudan conflict. India has been a member of the
UN Security Council for seven terms, with the most recent being the 2011–12
term. India is a member of G4, group of nations who back each other in seeking a
permanent seat on the Security Council and advocate in favor of the reformation
of the UNSC. India is also part of the G-77.
History India was one of the original members of
the League of Nations. In principle, only sovereign states can
become UN members. However, although today all UN members are fully sovereign
states, four of the original members were not independent at the time of
their admission. India signed the Declaration by United Nations on 1
January 1942 and was represented by Girija Shankar Bajpai who was the Indian
Agent-General at the time. Afterwards the Indian delegation led by Sir Arcot
Ramasamy Mudaliar signed the United Nations Charter on behalf of India
during the historic United Nations Conference on International Organization
held in San Francisco, United States on 26 June 1945. Sir A. Ramaswamy Mudaliar
later went on to serve as the first president of the United Nations Economic
and Social Council. Technically, India was a founding member in October 1945,
despite it being a British colony. India, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand
and Australia were all British colonies but were given independent seats in the
United Nations General Assembly. India gained full independence in 1947.
Independent India viewed its membership at the United Nations as an important
guarantee for maintaining international peace and security. India stood at the
forefront during the UN's tumultuous years of struggle against colonialism
and apartheid. India's status as a founding member of the Non-Aligned
Movement and the Group of 77 cemented its position within the UN system as a
leading advocate of the concerns and aspirations of developing countries and
the creation of a more equitable international economic and political
order. In 1945, when the UN charter was signed, more than 750 million people
lived in colonies including India. India was among the most outspoken critics of
apartheid and racial discrimination in South Africa, being the first country to
have raised the issue in the UN. Activities
= UN General Assembly = India was a founding member of the
United Nations, joining in October 1945, two years before acquiring independence
from the British Raj. By 1946, India had started raising concerns regarding
colonialism, apartheid and racial discrimination. From early 1947–48,
India took an active part in Drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Dr. Hansa Mehta, a Gandhian political activist and social worker who
led the Indian delegation, had made important contributions in drafting of
the Declaration, especially highlighting the need for reflecting gender equality
by changing the language of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
from 'all men are created equal' to 'all human beings'.
In 1953, the chief delegate of India at the time, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was
elected the first woman President of the UN General Assembly. India supported the
struggle towards global disarmament and the ending of the arms race, and towards
the creation of a more equitable international economic order. India had
a mediatory role in resolving the stalemate over prisoners of war in Korea
contributing to the signing of the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953.
India chaired the five-member Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission while
the Indian Custodian Force supervised the process of interviews and
repatriation that followed. India then went on to chair the three international
commissions for supervision and control for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos
established by the 1954 Geneva Accords on Indochina. India also had an active
role to play in the Suez Crisis in 1956 with the role of Nehru, both as Indian
Prime minister and a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement being significant.
Indian historian Inder Malhotra wrote that "Now Nehru—who had tried to be
even-handed between the two sides—denounced Eden and co-sponsors of
the aggression vigorous. He had a powerful, if relatively silent, ally in
the US president Dwight D. Eisenhower who went to the extent of using
America's clout in the IMF to make Eden and Mollet behave".
Charter provisions on Non-Self-Governing Territories were given a new thrust when
the UN adopted the landmark 1960 Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples which was co-sponsored by India.
The following year, the Special Committee on the Implementation of the
Declaration on Decolonization was established to study, investigate and
recommend action to bring an end to colonialism, it was chaired by India for
the first time. India played a leading role in the formation of a Sub-Committee
against Apartheid set up by the General Assembly. When the Convention on
Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted in 1965,
India was among the earliest signatories, however it does not
recognize competence under article 14 and it does not consider itself bound by
article 22. India also played a prominent role in
articulating the economic concerns of developing countries in such
UN-sponsored conferences as the triennial UN Conference on Trade and
Development and the 1992 Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio
de Janeiro. It has been an active member of the Group of 77, and later the core
group of the G-15 nations. Other issues, such as environmentally sustainable
development and the promotion and protection of human rights, have also
been an important focus of India's foreign policy in international forums.
= UN Security Council = Activities during 1947-1962
Despite its anti-status quo stand on many global issues, India's attitude
toward the basic structure of the U.N was fundamentally conservative. It
accepted the organization and distribution of power in the U.N, as
both a guarantee of Indian sovereignty and as a check on the numerical
superiority of the U.S and its western coalition. India supported the charter
provisions for a Security Council veto for the great powers, opposed the U.S
initiative to circumvent the veto through the Uniting for Peace
Resolution, dismissed Hammarskjöld's notion of a "U.N presence" as
interventionist and opposed all efforts to conduct U.N directed plebiscites as
tests of opinion. India's procedural conservatism was
based both on its commitment to national sovereignty and its desire to protect
Indian interests. Its experience with the U.N had not always been positive. In
the early years after independence, a whole range of issues, which had their
origins in the partition of the Indian subcontinent between India and Pakistan,
came before the U.N. These issues included the disputed princely states of
Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir, which were ultimately incorporated into the
Indian Union through the use of military force.
The most persistent of these disputes was the Kashmir conflict. Nehru's faith
in the UN and adherence to its principles proved costly on some
occasions due to the power play inherent in the organization. This was seen by
his decision to refer Pakistan's intervention in disputed Kashmir to the
UN Security Council in January 1948. The United Kingdom, which was hoping to
avoid being seen as unfriendly to a Muslim state after the creation of
Israel, used pressure tactics on its allies France, Canada and the US to
support the Pakistani viewpoint that Kashmir's accession to India was
disputable and had to be put to the test of a plebiscite. Nehru's hope that the
UN would unconditionally instruct Pakistan to vacate the one-third portion
of Kashmir that the Pakistani tribesmen and army had occupied fell flat in the
face of geopolitical maneuverings and cross-issue linkage. To this day, Indian
strategic commentators and critics of Nehru bemoan his cardinal mistake of
taking the Kashmir dispute to a UN that was packed with pro-Pakistani partisan
powers. According to columnist Brahma Chellaney, 'Nehru did not appreciate
that the UN was an institution of power politics, not an impartial police
force'. As if a double reminder were needed that India was small fry in a UN
dominated by crafty Great Powers divided into two ideological camps, New Delhi
was disappointed to find that Security Council members the US, United Kingdom
and France tried to prevent it from forcibly absorbing the Portuguese colony
of Goa in 1961. But for the Soviet veto in favor of India, Goa could have become
enmeshed in another Kashmir-like stalemate for decades, buffeted by the
changing winds of Great Power alignments and preferences that were paralyzing and
hijacking the UN. Washington Post reported that "India was
offered a permanent seat on the council 55 years ago, in 1955. But that offer,
made by the United States and the Soviet Union, was declined by India's first
prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru said the seat should be given to China
instead. The required council seat was then held by the Republic of China.
Prime Minister Nehru categorically denied receiving any such offer, formal
or informal in parliament itself on 27 September 1955 while replying an answer
to Dr. J.N. Parekh. Even if India were to accept such offers assuming they were
made, it would have required the United Nations charter to be amended to include
India in place of the Republic of China in the Security Council or to expand the
Council. It is not known whether the Taiwanese government representing
China's seat at the time in the Security Council would have vetoed the amendment
or accepted the amendment under US pressure as Taiwan was solely dependent
on the US for its protection from mainland China.
Overall the period from 1947-1962 was marked by India's active interest in all
UN activities under the leadership of V. K. Krishna Menon who was the Indian
Ambassador to the United Nations from 1952-1962. Indian leadership and
peacekeeping roles in the UN brought it considerable recognition and global
standing. The Low Profile Phase from 1962-1976
India's defeat in the Sino-Indian War came as a grave shock in comparison to
its global aspirations and recognition. Large scale hostilities and military
reverses dealt a shattering blow to its self-confidence and pride. India was
obliged to turn towards the west for military and political support.
Following the conflict with China, India became involved in two wars with
Pakistan and entered a period of political instability, economic
stagnation, food shortages and near-famine conditions. India's role
diminished in the UN which came both as a result of its image and a deliberate
decision by the post-Nehru political leadership to adopt a low profile at the
UN and speak only on vital Indian interests. This change in policy was
implemented during the 1965 debate on Kashmir in the Security Council when
Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh dramatically stormed out of the session
in response to the intemperate language of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's
Foreign Minister. In his book "India's Changing Role in the United Nations"
Stanley Kochanek shows how 'bilateralism became the guiding principle of Indian
foreign policy', relegating the UN to just an 'arena for maintaining such
contacts'. Further the Soviet Union's backing became far more important than a
slow and indecisive UN Security Council when India obtained its greatest
strategic victory by breaking up Pakistan into two and carving out
independent Bangladesh in 1971. In 1974, India tested its first nuclear
device, the aftermath of which resulted in a nuclear embargo by US and Canada.
Soon after the UN's non-proliferation agenda became another irritant that
forced New Delhi to view some units of the organization with distaste as fronts
for imposing discriminatory regimes instead of promoting universal
disarmament. From the very beginning it has refused to lend its support to the
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty with India's then External Affairs Minister
and later President, Pranab Mukherjee in a visit to Tokyo in 2007 commenting
that: "If India did not sign the NPT, it is not because of its lack of commitment
for non-proliferation, but because we consider NPT as a flawed treaty and it
did not recognize the need for universal, non-discriminatory
verification and treatment." In short, the 1960s as a whole saw major changes
in the global system but a general decline in UN activities.
Seeking of Permanent Seat in UNSC India has been elected seven times to
the UN Security Council, tied with Colombia and Pakistan. Only three
countries have served longer: Japan, Brazil, and Argentina.
India has been seeking a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council
as a member of the G4, an organisation composed of Brazil, Germany, Japan, and
India, all who are currently seeking permanent representation. According to
their proposal, the UN Security Council should be expanded beyond the current
fifteen members to include twenty-five members. If this actually happens, it
would be the first time permanent Security Council status is extended to a
South Asian nation and supporters of the G4 plan suggest that this will lead to
greater representation of developing nations rather than the current major
powers. India makes a number of claims to
justify its demand. India has the world's second largest population and is
the world's largest liberal democracy. It is also the world's ninth largest
economy and third largest in terms of purchasing power parity as of 2014.
India is the third largest contributor of troops to United Nations peacekeeping
missions with 7,860 personnel deployed with ten UN Peacekeeping Missions as of
2014 after Bangladesh and Pakistan, all three nations being in South Asia. India
has contributed nearly 160,000 troops, the largest number from any country,
participated in more than 43 missions and 156 Indian peacekeepers have made
the supreme sacrifice while serving in UN missions. India has also provided and
continues to provide eminent Force Commanders for UN Missions.
Although the U.S. and other permanent Council members were not very supportive
of expanding the Security Council, in his visit to India, US President Barack
Obama has offered his support for India to become a permanent member of the
Council. However, the reaction from other Council members are not very
clear, particularly from China. Thus it is uncertain whether the demands by G4
nations will be implemented anytime soon.
Initiatives = Peacekeeping Missions =
So far India has taken part in 43 Peacekeeping missions with a total
contribution exceeding 160,000 troops and a significant number of police
personnel having been deployed. In 2014 India is the third largest troop
contributor with 7,860 personnel deployed with ten UN Peacekeeping
Missions of which 995 are police personnel, including the first female
formed Police Unit under the UN. The Indian Army has undertaken numerous UN
peacekeeping missions. As of 30 June 2014, 157 Indians have been killed
during such operations. The Indian army has also provided paramedical units to
facilitate the withdrawal of the sick and wounded.
= International Yoga Day = On 11 December 2014, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted without a vote a resolution commemorating 21 June as
the International Yoga Day, recognizing the holistic benefits of this timeless
practice and its inherent compatibility with the principles and values of the
United Nations. Financial contribution
India is one of the main contributors to the UN regular budget. Indian
contribution to United Nations Democracy Fund was USD 16 million for 2009.
Representation India has a permanent mission to the UN,
which is led by the Permanent Representative, currently Asoke Kumar
Mukerji, since 16 April 2013. See also
Foreign relations of India G4 nations
Reform of the United Nations Security Council
International Yoga Day References
External links Official website of the Permanent
Mission of India to the UN Official website of the Ministry of
External Affairs of India