Introduction

From being a leading member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to being one of the largest contributors to peacekeeping troops in the United Nations (UN), from being a member of the largest regional organization in the world in terms of population (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, SAARC) as well as territorial scope (Indian Ocean Rim Association, IORA), the Indian approach towards and involvement in multilateralism has an impressive history and trajectory. Today, major changes in India's role in multilateralism are underway, making India's present-day role in multilateralism an intriguing work in progress.

India's historical ‘tryst’ with multilateralism started when India sent a delegation – albeit as part of the British delegation – to the United Nations Conference on International Organisation (UNCIO), responsible for drafting the UN charter in 1945. Since then, India has shown a virtually unwavering commitment to the principles and concomitant obligations stipulated in the UN charter.

At independence, India's international position was weak, her financial and military resources low. After independence, multilateralism under the framework of the UN was consequently used by India as a means of protecting her hard-won sovereignty as well as strengthening the economy, while at the same time coming to realize that fora like the UN were in no small measure used as an arena for continuing great-powers politics. Still, whenever possible India used global multilateralism to exert influence and impress upon the world her idiosyncratic normative and universalist approach.