When the heads of Indian diplomatic missions gather in New Delhi this week for an annual brainstorming and policy guidance, the history of India’s external engagement is unlikely to be on the agenda. Even a little bit of reflection on the nation’s diplomatic history, however, might reveal many recurring patterns that are rooted in India’s geography and culture, have endured amidst the rise and fall of many empires in Delhi, and offer insights into how a rising India must deal with its emerging strategic challenges.

Our many current frustrations in dealing with Pakistan, for example, are not very different from those faced by every major Indian empire in the north-western marches of the subcontinent that were at once difficult to control and offered the easy invasion routes into the Gangetic plain. The British

Empire in India devoted much of its military energy to securing the restive north-western frontier and preparing for potential military invasions across the Hindu Kush.

India can learn from its diplomatic history only when it ends the pretence that our global engagement began at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947. Independent India eagerly embraced the many instruments inherited from the Raj for the conduct of

India’s foreign relations. Post-colonial Delhi also held on to many principles of British India’s foreign policy.

Talking of the institutions, the history of our Foreign Office dates back to 1783, when the Secret and Political Department was formed by the East India Company to deal with the sensitive political communication with the various kingdoms within the subcontinent and on its periphery. The Secret and Political Department was run by the “Persian Secretary” (all inter-state communications in the subcontinent were then in Persian), the oldest predecessor to the current “Foreign Secretary”.

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