This book is a study of non-alignment as it was conceptualised and developed in the context of modern India, particularly in the period immediately after independence. The main architect of India’s external affairs at this juncture was the first Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The book is restricted to events that took place during the time he held office, between the years 1947 and 1964. In particular, this study aims to study non-alignment as an approach to security and as an approach to politics. There are three themes along which the book proceeds. First, the book contends that non-alignment is understood vaguely and inaccurately, leading to protracted debates about its past relevance and continued significance; secondly, that non-alignment frames politics innovatively; and thirdly, that this is an immensely precarious wager that encounters many points of resistance, which are not adequately engaged with in a sustained theoretical manner in literature on non-alignment. Thus, the book will argue that there has yet to emerge a serious critique of the political nature of non-alignment.

A punitive law criminalized what had long been acknowledged as ‘tradition’ (sati) ambiguously based on scriptural ‘sanctions’, while another law made the violation of tradition (that is, widow remarriage) legal and permissible, though it undercut custom—and therefore women's rights—in very different ways. Both legislative efforts were in some ways linked to the pernicious consequences of early marriage, hence early widowhood, and an absent or curtailed childhood. But this was also tied to fears about the ‘incorrigible’ sexual appetite of widows, which had resulted in infanticide, which had to be stopped or curtailed. One could argue that the 19th century, usually understood as being about women, was in fact all about the child.

Controlling Female Infanticide

Infanticide, and particularly female infanticide, the British ‘discovered’ in Benares in 1789, had grave consequences for communities as a whole in parts of northern and western India where intervention began at a brisk pace. This led to the passage of the Female Infanticide Prevention Act (or Special Act) of 1870 to curb female infanticide in the Northwest Provinces before it was withdrawn in 1906.

Was the Special Act of 1870 a philanthropic and humanitarian move, an attempt of the colonial regime to gain legitimacy, an invasion of the Hindu home with the intention of controlling it, or an effort aimed at merely pruning the excesses of the patriarchal family? Feminist scholars have also shown how the practice was intimately linked to the transformations of the agrarian structure brought about by colonial rule itself.

This is not to suggest that female infanticide was a creation of British rule. But it was treated as a gender-specific crime quite distinct from infanticide in England. Thus, T. P. Madhav Rao, dewan of Baroda state, demanded an amendment to the IPC but also urged the colonial regime to be very sympathetic to Indian social reality.

This book has historicized the quest for individual freedom in twentieth-century Europe by highlighting conflict-ridden expansion: more and more people claimed the status of free individuals, but they did so in very different ways, in various contexts, and more often than not in the face of powerful opposition. The Conclusion brings out the overarching narrative centered around ordinary Europeans’ efforts to expand their realm of control in spite of obstacles, to carve out a space for themselves, and to live freely according to their own preferred understandings. It also argues that these efforts stood in tension with various political movements that aspired to combine individual and collective freedom. This tension eased when the quest in its unheroic versions, having put both democracies and dictatorships under pressure to adapt, could be pursued in the more favorable context of détente and affluence. With the end of the Cold war, it seemed indeed to have prevailed. But the relationship between individual freedom and Europeanness was never entirely exempt from conflict and complexity and has recently become more controversial again.

This book explores what Europeans in the twentieth century understood by individual freedom and how they endeavored to achieve it, often against the odds. The Introduction lays out its conceptual bases, arguing that the quest was multi-faceted and unfolded in nonlinear ways, which jars with teleological narratives of the rise and decline of “the individual.” It disputes Annelien de Dijn’s recent account of one dominant concept of modern liberty and is attentive to mainstream as well as marginalized versions of individual freedom, questioning Michel Foucault’s idea that the former were “imposed on us” through disciplinary power. Instead, the book borrows from sociologist Georg Simmel and political philosopher Isaiah Berlin to stress the subjective, gradual, and unpredictable character of individual freedom and the fact that it was pursued against a range of obstacles and constraints. It tells a story of conflict-ridden expansion. Men and women had to claim their personal freedom in a context marked by world wars, the expanding power of the state, the constraints of work life, pre-established moral norms, the growing influence of America, and the uncertain future of colonial rule.

A ‘status of Indian women’ report card in the second decade of the new millennium would present a very contradictory picture. Let us start from where most of those reading this book will be: the field of higher education. Although the presence of women in higher educational institutions has reached a very creditable 49 per cent, it is against a broader backdrop of at least 35 per cent female illiteracy, according to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education, 2019–20. No doubt, the demand for education, from primary to high school to college, is growing in leaps and bounds, as women, and sometimes their families, recognize the importance of a greater chance of employability among the educated.

But women's access to the world of paid employment, which ideally opens up fresh avenues of independence and opportunities for self-assertion among women, is ironically in decline: women constituted a mere 21.9 per cent of the above-15 workforce in 2011–12, down from 35 per cent in 1990, and an even sharper decline has been noted in the Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017–18. Even those women who do work outside the home for wages are systematically lower paid, overwhelmingly concentrated in some sectors (rural and unorganized) and afforded little or no legal protection.

Gender Discrimination in India Today

Even after more than 70 years of independence, therefore, Indian women still face a formidable degree of discrimination in public and private life. The ratio of women to men in India has steadily fallen since 1911, when there were 965 women to every 1,000 men; the most recent census (2011) reveals a slight improvement after a long period of decline, at 943 per 1,000 men. But the child sex ratio (of girls under six) is an alarming 914. A single indicator such as this speaks of sex-selective abortions, the neglect of girl children and criminally negligent maternal health care facilities. In other words, the demographic disparity between the sexes speaks volumes of the systematic, rather than just the episodic or occasional, forms of discrimination against women. In post-independence India, ‘adverse child sex ratios … have become practically synonymous with gender discrimination’.

Recent feminist scholarship allows us to reframe the period of 19th-century ‘social reform’. For one, the extraordinary energy with which the colonial intelligentsia debated questions concerning women—for example, sati (widow immolation), widow remarriage or child marriage—were issues which concerned primarily upper-caste, middle-class women. These concerns cannot be disconnected from each other and from wider changes in the political economy of colonial India, since part of the colonial agenda was the transformation of the household as a unit. But was the Indian family to be seen as a religious unit or as an economic unit? Was it to be understood as space to be defended, an institution to be slightly modernized or a set of relations to be thoroughly recast? These questions wracked debates throughout the 19th century as the family form and conjugality were aligned with the emerging needs of capital.

The Family in Focus

The deindustrialization of India that transformed it from a manufacturing nation into a raw material producer, the assignment of property rights to zamindars that underwrote their feudal powers and reduced the rights of tenants, the development of enclaves of capital in plantations and mines, the active discouragement of industry and the constant effort of the British to widen their circle of indigenous collaborators—all these had profound effects on the family form and produced serious realignments within the family and in gender relations.

The ideology of the patriarchal nuclear family also gained ground through the efforts of colonial administrators, missionaries and educators. The ideal of companionate marriage, for example, increasingly took root amongst educated Indians. Some were therefore willing collaborators in modernizing, if not recasting entirely, gender relations.

From its original base in Bengal, established in 1765, the EIC, through a policy of alliances and wars with indigenous rulers, controlled the subcontinent by 1848. The EIC was, however, a mercantilist company whose presence in India since 1600 was largely prompted by the European need for Indian cotton and silk manufactures. Before 1765, there were few demands in India for the manufactures of Europe, forcing the EIC to pay for its imports in bullion. The military conquest of Bengal in 1757 and the grant of its revenues in 1765 to the EIC dramatically changed its economic fortunes, and turned India into a supplier of ‘western Indian raw cotton, Punjab wheat, Bengal jute, Assam tea, south Indian oilseeds and hides and skins’. The political subjugation of India therefore implied economic subjugation since it was now integrated into an emerging global capitalist network, but as a captive market for the products of Britain. Over 190 years of British rule, the Indian subcontinent was therefore transformed from being a primary exporter of high-quality manufactures to large parts of the world to become a raw-material producer for the Industrial Revolution in England. In addition was the ‘drain of wealth’, which included ‘interest on foreign debt incurred by the East India Company, military expenditure, guaranteed interest on foreign investments in railways, irrigation, road transport and various other infrastructural facilities, the government purchase policy of importing all its stationery from England’. India also paid ‘home charges’—that is, for the secretary of state and his establishment at the India Office in London—and pension and training costs for the civilian and military personnel.

Women in the Colonial Economy

These transformations in the Indian economy profoundly affected the economic fortunes of all women. The dissolution of the traditional bases of the economy and the slow, partial and extremely limited emergence of a ‘modern’ sector in India undermined existing ways of life, exaggerated existing inequalities and cleavages (even within families) and led to absolute impoverishment.

Chapter 5 discusses the Congo Crisis, one where India was involved between 1960 and 1963. The contention in this chapter is that India’s involvement in the crisis, particularly in the form of heavy military support to the UN, was rooted in Nehru’s idea of Africa. The advent of peacekeeping and the UN’s reliance on India’s troop contribution for its continued survival and success in the Congo exposed India to rapid alienation from African member-states and cost Indian lives on the ground. In turn, this exposed Nehru’s administration and foreign policy to criticism from within the domestic realm in India. The crisis was soon overshadowed by border problems with the Chinese and the eventual Sino-Indian War of 1962, but the Congo Crisis shows how India chose to strengthen the UN by military means, in complete contradiction of its stated position a decade earlier.

The Sinai Campaign of 1956 was shaped by significant geopolitical developments, including the end of colonialism and the emergence of the Cold War. As former colonial powers relinquished control over territories, the Middle East became a focal point for global power struggles. Great Britain and France, seeking to protect their interests in the region, became involved in the conflict, aligning with Israel to achieve their strategic goals. Amidst these shifting dynamics, the Sinai Campaign unfolded as a pivotal military endeavor. The campaign was characterized by the emphasis on speed in battle, as articulated by Moshe Dayan. Dayan’s strategic vision prioritized the relative advantage of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), focusing on areas where they could create a decisive edge over their adversaries. This approach led to a reevaluation of force-building principles, with an emphasis on offense and rapid execution capabilities. Furthermore, the campaign revealed the formidable power of the IDF’s armored corps, triggering a genuine revolution in Israeli military strategy. The Sinai Campaign thus stands as a multifaceted historical event, shaped by geopolitical realignments, military innovations, and ethical dilemmas.

The chapter provides a detailed account of the decision-making processes that led to strategic surprise in the Yom Kippur War 6 of October 1973 and the battles during the first days of the war. The chapter highlights the differences in opinion among Israeli military leaders regarding the best approach to defending against an Egyptian attack, with some advocating for a flexible defense and others favoring a rigid defense with strongpoints. Ultimately, political considerations led to the adoption of a rigid defense strategy integrated with some mobile units. The chapter also explores the misunderstandings and communication issues that occurred during the first hours of the war that led to Israel’s military failures, particularly with regards to the delayed call-up of reserve units but also the air force. Israel’s counter offensive on the 8 of October failure in its southern front is also analyzed.

Two developments in the Indian subcontinent since 1986 have highlighted the ways in which women's rights have been poised between community and state. On the one hand are the breakthroughs made by Indian feminism in legal reform, strategic uses of the law and generation of sophisticated understandings of how the law operates or has operated in the past, to both mirror and challenge existing hierarchies. On the other hand has been the meteoric rise, particularly since the 1980s, of the Hindu right which, by often adopting the language of ‘feminism’, has called for a recalibration of earlier feminist demands. The certainties of the immediate pre-independence days and the optimism about the emancipatory outcomes of law reform since 1947 have been radically recast by feminists themselves. Feminists increasingly express caution regarding the imposition of one uniform law for all, since they recognize that uniformity does not promise gender justice. The wariness also arises from the vastly altered political circumstances under which the demand for a uniform civil code is now being made, not necessarily as a tool for ensuring gender justice, but as a weapon with which to target Muslim men (and women).

We start with an observation that remains as true today as when personal law reform was first discussed in the 1920s. Indira Jaising has said:

Marriage and family formed the core of colonial Hindu (as well as other personal) law. Despite its frequent assertions to the contrary, by ‘denominating marriage and family as the primary subjects of religious law, the colonial state both claimed to be attending to the effective significance of these matters for Indians, and also subjected them to state scrutiny and jurisdiction’.

Chapter 4 discusses the year 1956 as bringing together two crises that coincided in time almost to the hour but were starkly different in their causes and consequences. These are the Suez Canal Crisis and the Hungarian Revolution. India was intimately involved with both in very different ways. On the one hand, in the Suez Canal Crisis, India assumed again the mediatory role so well constructed during the Korean War. The anti-colonial fervour of the crisis and India’s support of the Egyptian cause did not impede India from mediating with both sides and contributing substantially to the closing of the crisis. On the other hand, in the case of Hungary, Nehru exposed himself to severe criticism, both international and domestic, for his delayed and ambiguous response to Soviet actions in suppressing the revolution. Both these events are discussed in conjunction as an attempt to read them as a discursive moment in which non-alignment as an approach to world politics encountered its first challenge and Nehru responded through an ambiguously constructed idea of Europe.

The chapter outlines Dayan’s transition from commanding the Southern Command to becoming the Chief of Staff, emphasizing his strategic vision and operational command. The document delves into Dayan’s approach to military training, his participation in advanced command courses, and the unique leadership style he exhibited during his command of the Northern Command. Additionally, it sheds light on Dayan’s role in shaping Israel’s security doctrine, particularly through the implementation of reprisal actions to address ongoing security threats. The content elucidates Dayan’s belief in the importance of readiness for both routine security challenges and high-intensity conflict, as well as his deep-seated conviction in the necessity of an reprisal operations for maintaining Israel’s deterrence posture that is necessary for Israel’s survival. Furthermore, it provides insights into Dayan’s perception of the conflict through his famous eulogy for a fallen officer, which underscores his complex sentiments towards peaceful coexistence and the harsh realities of conflicts in the region. Overall, the chapter highlights Dayan’s multifaceted leadership, military strategy, and the evolving nature of Israel’s security challenges during his tenure.