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How national Pride Shapes india’s Foreign Policy Decisions
Table of Contents
analysis: Beyond strategic calculations, emotional factors like national honor significantly influence India’s global interactions.
NEW DELHI – The April terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s pahalgam, which targeted tourists, triggered widespread condemnation and a surge of national sentiment in India. Beyond official diplomatic responses, the incident highlighted the crucial role of emotions, particularly national honor, in shaping India’s foreign policy.
Customary International Relations (IR) theories often emphasize strategic calculations of power and interest when analyzing state behavior. Though, emotions linked to national identity and honor can significantly influence how states perceive threats and exert their influence. India’s response to the Pahalgam attack and other key events demonstrates this dynamic.
The Emotional Dimension of Foreign Policy
This analysis explores how emotions, especially national honor, shape India’s foreign policy. By examining pivotal moments like Operation Sindoor and the Balakot airstrikes, as well as the broader discourse surrounding India’s global aspirations, it argues that national honor acts as a powerful force in shaping strategic decisions, diplomatic stances, and public legitimacy.
Recent years have seen emotions gain prominence in IR theory and practice,offering deeper insights into the motivations behind state behavior. Emma Hutchison, for example, argues that emotions are integral to the discourses and social structures underpinning societies and their politics. While the “emotional turn” in IR has been developing for over a decade, the foreign policy decisions of India’s strategic leaders have not been thoroughly examined through this lens.
Indian foreign policy, often viewed through strategic realism or material power lenses, requires a more nuanced interpretation. Priya Chacko, in her book Indian Foreign policy: The Politics of Postcolonial Identity from 1947 to 2004, suggests that Indian foreign policy is best understood as a postcolonial phenomenon-a self-reflective and ethically driven project rooted in the experiance of colonialism.She argues that it’s a platform where the state performs its identity as a civilizational actor with a moral mission and a history of resisting imperial subjugation. This identity is not merely intellectual but deeply emotional.
National Honor as a Driving Force
At the core of this identity lies the concept of national honor-an emotional lens through which India interprets global hierarchies, responds to external threats, and asserts its moral agency. From a postcolonial perspective, national honor serves as a powerful emotional register shaped by past memory, collective grievances, and a desire for recognition and status. It is invoked not only in response to violence but also as an active assertion of India’s distinctiveness and strategic autonomy. During geopolitical tensions, India often draws upon narratives steeped in honor to reinforce its sovereignty and legitimacy, mobilizing both state rhetoric and public sentiment.
The expression of national honor in Indian foreign policy is particularly evident in the emotionally charged speeches and statements of political leaders. These moments represent the intersection of statecraft and sentiment, where diplomatic language merges with expressions of pride, grief, vengeance, and collective resolve. Following the Pahalgam terror attack,Maharashtra chief Minister Eknath Shinde declared,”The game has been started by Pakistan,but we are confident that it will be ended by Indian jawans. There will be reaction to action, blood for blood, brick for a brick. Such is the valour of our soldiers.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi echoed this sentiment, stating, “India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers. India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism. Terrorism will not go unpunished. The entire nation is firm in this resolve.”
This emotional resolve translated into action with the launch of Operation Sindoor-a military strike targeting terrorist infrastructure. While officially framed as a security operation, its timing and messaging carried emotional weight. the operation was portrayed as a direct response to grief and fury, an act of moral reckoning rather than mere tactical retaliation. In a public address, Modi captured the emotional engine driving the state’s actions:
Operation sindoor is not just a name but it’s a reflection of the feelings of millions of people of the country. Operation ‘Sindoor’ is our unwavering commitment to justice. India will strike at the roots of terror, without hesitation, without fear.
Similar rhetoric followed the 2019 Balakot airstrikes, with Modi stating that India had transformed into a nation no longer willing to absorb blows: “This new Bharat does not endure terrorism, rather it inflicts serious damage upon perpetrators. The people who used to terrorise us are nowhere now.” In his 2021 Independence Day address, he invoked the 2016 surgical strikes as emblematic of India’s assertive new posture:
India is fighting the twin challenges of terrorism and expansionism with great courage, and does not hesitate in taking tough decisions.By conducting surgical and air strikes, the country sent out the message of ‘New india.’
The emotional resonance of honor is also evident in India’s handling of border conflicts, particularly with China. During his 2020 visit to Leh, after the Galwan Valley clash, Modi paid tribute to the Indian soldiers, stating: “Through display of your bravery, a clear message has gone to the world about India’s strength. Your courage is higher than the heights where you are posted today.” These remarks captured the essence of an emotional foreign policy-one that pairs military restraint with rhetorical assertiveness. In both the 2017 Doklam standoff and the Galwan incident, political messaging emphasized sovereignty, resilience, and the memory of betrayal, even as India avoided open military escalation.
The Role of Media
The media has played a significant role in amplifying these narratives. Following the 2019 Balakot strikes,media coverage largely embraced the government’s framing of the operation as justified retribution. Outlets used emotionally charged language,framing the airstrikes as a restoration of pride and a demonstration of India’s moral and strategic resolve. Times of India proclaimed that India had “broken free of its shackles,” while Dainik bhaskar hailed the moment as historic, noting that it was the first time in nearly five decades that the Indian Air Force had crossed the Pakistan border. These portrayals shaped public perception and intensified national sentiment, reinforcing the idea that the Indian state was acting to protect and vindicate national honor.
EXPLAINER: National honor in foreign policy refers to the use of emotional appeals and narratives centered on a country’s pride, dignity, and historical identity to justify or promote certain actions on the global stage. It frequently enough involves invoking past grievances, celebrating national achievements, and portraying the country as a moral actor defending its values and interests.
Conclusion
India’s foreign policy appears not just as a series of strategic responses but as a continuous performance of identity. Emotions, particularly those tied to honor, are not incidental but constitutive. They serve to unify domestic audiences, assert India’s global posture, and reframe geopolitical conflicts as moral imperatives. Emotion functions as a strategic tool of statecraft-rational, potent, and deeply rooted in the narratives that define modern India’s place in the world.
India’s foreign policy discourse is infused with emotionally resonant language that ties state actions to national psychology and justifies assertiveness. These emotional narratives unfold in a highly mediated environment, where media reinforces state messaging and creates a feedback loop between public sentiment and policy signals. while this emotional turn strengthens cohesion and legitimacy, it can also escalate conflicts, reduce diplomatic adaptability, and promote zero-sum thinking. When honor dominates, compromise can appear as weakness.Still, emotional identity helps explain why India often prioritizes recognition, ethical positioning, and narrative control over raw material interest.Recognizing these emotional undercurrents reveals a more layered understanding of how India engages the world. States do not just pursue interests-they perform identities. And in India’s case, that performance is deeply emotional, historically grounded, and deliberately proud.
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