India and the United Nations

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Republic of India
Membership Full member
Since 30 October 1945
UNSC seat Non-permanent (7 past full terms)
Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji

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.[2] 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,[3][4] Egypt and the Congo in its earlier years and in Somalia, Angola and Rwanda in recent years, and more recently Haiti. India has been a member of the UN Security Council for six terms (a total of 12 years), and was a member for the term 2011-12. India is a member of the G4 group of nations who back each other in seeking a permanent seat on the security council and advocate in favour of the reformation of the UNSC. India is also part of the Group of 77.

History

In principle, only sovereign states can become UN members. However, although today all UN members are fully sovereign states, four of the original members (Belarus, India, The Philippines, and Ukraine) were not independent at the time of their admission.[5] 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.[6] Sir A. Ramasamy 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, Union of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia were all British colonies but were given independent seats in the UN General Assembly. India gained full independence in 1947.

Sir A. Ramaswami Mudaliar, Supply Member of the Governor-General's Executive Council and leader of the delegation of India, signs the United Nations Charter, San Francisco, 26 June 1945[1]

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 amongst the most outspoken critics of apartheid and racial discrimination in South Africa, being the first country to have raised the issue in the UN (in 1946).[7]

Activities

UN General Assembly

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was President of the eight session of the United Nations General Assembly.

India was a founding member of the United Nations, joining in October 1945, two years before acquiring independence from the British Raj.[8] By 1946, India had started raising concerns regarding colonialism, apartheid and racial discrimination. From early 1947-1948, India took an active part in Drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Dr (Mrs). 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’ (Eleanor Roosevelt’s preferred phrase) to ‘all human beings’.[9][10]

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.[11] 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 vigorously. He had a powerful, if relatively silent, ally in the US president Dwight Eisenhower who went to the extent of using America’s clout in the IMF to make Eden and Mollet behave".[12]

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.[13] 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

Countries which have formal diplomatic relations with India.

Despite its anti-status quo stand on many global issues, India’s attitude toward the basic structure of the U.N was fundamentally conservative. [14] 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.[15]

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. [16][17]

The most persistent of these disputes, of course, was the Kashmir conflict. Nehru’s inherent internationalist faith in the UN and instinctive adherence to its principles proved costly on some occasions due to the power play inherent in an organization that had been crafted to accommodate and reward Great Powers of the time, as seen by his decision to refer Pakistan’s intervention (‘invasion’) in disputed Kashmir to the UN Security Council in January 1948.[18] 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 USA to support the Pakistani viewpoint that Kashmir’s accession to India was disputable and had to be put to the test of a plebiscite.[19] Nehru’s hope that the UN would unconditionally instruct Pakistan to vacate the one-third portion of Kashmir that its 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.[20] According to columnist Brahma Chellaney, ‘Nehru did not appreciate that the UN was an institution of power politics, not an impartial police force’.[21] 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 USA, United Kingdom and France tried to prevent it from forcibly absorbing the Portuguese colony of Goa in 1961.[22] 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.[23]

India has been elected seven times to the UN Security Council. Only three countries have served longer than that (Japan, Brazil, and Argentina), except for the Permanent Five, and Colombia has served the same amount of time.

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 tenth largest economy and third largest in terms of purchasing power parity as of 2012[24]. Currently, India maintains the world's third largest armed force.[25] 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,[26][27] 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.[28]

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.".[29] The required council seat was then held by Taiwan (ROC). However this report is factually incorrect as Prime Minister Nehru categorically denied receiving any such offer, formal or informal, as stated by his reply to a short notice question in the Lok Sabha on September 27, 1955 stating that "There has been no offer, formal or informal, of this kind. Some vague references have appeared in the press about it which have no foundation in fact. The composition of the Security Council is prescribed by the UN Charter, according to which certain specified nations have permanent seats. No change or addition can be made to this without an amendment of the Charter. There is, therefore, no question of a seat being offered and India declining it. Our declared policy is to support the admission of all nations qualified for UN membership".[30] Even if India were to accept such offers assuming it were ever made, it would have required the United Nations charter to be amended to include India in place of Republic of China (Taiwan) 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.

Although the U.S. and other permanent Council members were not very supportive of expanding the Security Council, in his visit to India President 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.

Peacekeeping

Indian Army T-72 tanks with UN markings as part of Operation CONTINUE HOPE.

India has been the largest troop contributor to UN missions since its inception. So far India has taken part in 43 Peacekeeping missions with a total contribution exceeding 1,60,000 troops and a significant number of police personnel having been deployed. In 2014 India is the third largest troop contributor [TCC] 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.[31] Recently Indian Peacekeepers were lauded by the UN for their efforts in preventing a carnage in the South Sudan conflict which resulted in the death of two of its soldiers.[32]

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.[33]

Representation

Main article: Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations

India has a permanent mission to the UN, which is led by the Permanent Representative (UN Ambassador), currently Asoke Kumar Mukerji, since April 16, 2013.[34] India, running unopposed in the Asian Group, was elected in 2010 as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the period 2011-2012, after it garnered 187 votes in the then-192 member General Assembly.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.mea.gov.in/india-and-the-united-nations.htm
  2. ↑ http://www.un.int/india/india%20&%20un/introduction.pdf
  3. ↑ http://ias.sagepub.com/content/13/2/21.abstract
  4. ↑ http://congress.aks.ac.kr/korean/files/2_1358402525.pdf
  5. ↑ http://www.worldometers.info/united-nations/
  6. ↑ http://www.mea.gov.in/india-and-the-united-nationshtm
  7. ↑ http://www.un.int/india/india%20&%20un/introduction.pdf
  8. ↑ http://www.un.org/en/members/
  9. ↑ Jain, Devaki (2005). Women, Development and the UN. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 20. 
  10. ↑ http://www.un.int/india/india%20&%20un/humanrights.pdf
  11. ↑ http://countrystudies.us/india/136.htm
  12. ↑ http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/nothing-common-and-there-is-no-wealth/587133/0
  13. ↑ "India - United Nations". Countrystudies.us. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
  14. ↑ Rana, Swadesh (1970). The Changing Diplomacy at the United Nations. Cambridge University Press. p. 55-7. 
  15. ↑ Brecher, Michael (1968). India and World Politics. New York: Praeger. p. 308. 
  16. ↑ Hiscocks, Richard (1973). The Security Council. New York: The Free Press. p. 168-82. 
  17. ↑ Kochanek, Stanley A. (Vol. 53, No. 1 (Spring, 1980)). India's Changing Role in the United Nations. Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia. p. 50-51. 
  18. ↑ http://sreeramchaulia.net/publications/Chapter25.pdf
  19. ↑ C. Dasgupta (2002). War and Diplomacy in Kashmir,1947-48,. Sage Publications. p. 111. 
  20. ↑ http://www.financialexpress.com/news/terrorism-kashmir-festering-sores-due-to-nehrus-mishandling-advani/579985
  21. ↑ B. Chellaney (1999). Securing India’s Future in the New Millennium. New Delhi: Orient Longman. p. 545. 
  22. ↑ M. Fisher (Vol. 2, No. 2,1962). Goa in Wider Perspective. Asian Survey. 
  23. ↑ http://sreeramchaulia.net/publications/Chapter25.pdf
  24. ↑ http://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/dnltransfer.asp?fID=2
  25. ↑ http://www.globalfirepower.com/active-military-manpower.asp
  26. ↑ http://www.un.int/india/india%20&%20un/peacekeeping.pdf
  27. ↑ "UN says peacekeepers overstretched - Americas". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
  28. ↑ http://www.un.int/india/india%20&%20un/peacekeeping.pdf
  29. ↑ "Obama supports adding India as a permanent member of U.N. Security Council". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
  30. ↑ http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/28/stories/2005092800270900.htm
  31. ↑ http://www.un.int/india/india%20&%20un/peacekeeping.pdf
  32. ↑ http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/12/un-praise-indian-peacekeepers-s-sudan-2013122374237681429.html
  33. ↑ Financial Contributions (UN)
  34. ↑ "List of Permanent Representatives and Observers to the United Nations in New York (As of Monday, 05 August 2013)". UN. Retrieved 2013-08-21. 

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