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India's Saudi Policy pp 11–32Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Nehru Era

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Abstract

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was the primary architect of India’s foreign policy. In the Nehruvian understanding of global affairs, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia did not find a significant place. The conservative monarchy was overshadowed by secular republican nations such as Egypt and Syria, and they drew considerable attention and efforts in India’s approach towards the Middle East.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The civil war started after a coup d’état led by Abdullah Sallal who at the time was a colonel in the Yemeni Army against the newly ascended Imam of the Rassidi dynasty, Imam Muhammad al-Badr. Saudi Arabia, which had earlier fought a war with the Yemeni Imamate to take over Najran, Asir and Jizan in 1926, along with Jordan extended support to the Imamate fearing Egyptian and Soviet plot to throw out the monarchies from Arabian Peninsula. The Zaidi Imamate in North Yemen was continuing since it was established in 897 AD by one of the descendants of Hasan son of Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of the prophet and the fourth pious caliph. The Imamate had since then continued among the Zaidi Sayyids of the Rassidi dynasty and Muhammad al-Badr proved to be the last Zaidi Imam to rule north Yemen. See Witty 2001; Halliday 1984.

  2. 2.

    Interestingly, even after the partition of the subcontinent and the formation of a separate Muslim country in 1947, Pakistani leaders tended to speak ‘on behalf’ of the Indian Muslims. This approach has largely contributed to continuing tension between the two neighbours. In this 1987 statement, the official was also speaking ‘on behalf of Bangladesh’ which had separated from Pakistan in 1971.

  3. 3.

    Earlier King Saud visited Pakistan in February 1954, but a return visit had to wait until November 1960, when he hosted President Ayub Khan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    P. R. Kumaraswamy

  2. Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi, India

    Md. Muddassir Quamar

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  1. P. R. Kumaraswamy
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  2. Md. Muddassir Quamar
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Kumaraswamy, P.R., Quamar, M.M. (2019). The Nehru Era. In: India's Saudi Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0794-2_2

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