Foreign Policy Discourse of Extremist Hindus Mohammad Hassan Sheikholeslami

This study explores the discourse of extremist Hindus in post-Gandhi era. Gandhi’s discourse, in his lifetime, had gained momentum to become the most important political driving force in India. But Gandhi’s being assassinated by an extremist Hindu, left his legacy – Gandhi’s discourse – to face too many ups and downs in the context of historic developments and the ensuing competing discourses and debates, all of which have played a significant role in shaping India’s foreign policy. Therefore, at this juncture, the call for an in-depth investigation of Gandhi’s discourse is being felt more than ever. The present paper examines the effective historic developments, which have contributed to the shaping of India’s foreign policy, basic debates, and discourses based on Hinduism in India, all of which define Gandhi’s discourse as their otherness. The main question of the research is “What discourses and to what extent have they been envisaged in India’s foreign policy?” The assumption of the research is as follows: With respect to Gandhi’s legacy, India as an independent republic, launched an idealistic policy. However, in the course of time under the influence of extreme nationalism discourses, idealism was gradually forced to readjusted its course and steer towards realism to the extent that Gandhi’s genuine discourse deviated from practical politics into the corners of libraries. Consequentially, at present, Hindu-based political parties, such as Bharatiya Janata Party, as the main otherness of Gandhi’s discourse, have dominated India’s foreign policy.”