India and the United Nations

India was one of the founding members of the United Nations, joining in October 1945, two years before acquiring independence from British rule.[9] By 1946, India had started raising concerns regarding decolonization, apartheid and racial discrimination. From early 1947–48, 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'.[10][11]

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.[12] 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 Anthony Eden and co-sponsors of the aggression vigorous. He had a powerful, if relatively silent, ally in the US president Dwight D. Eisenhower who went to the extent of using America's clout in the IMF to make Eden and Mollet (the then French Prime Minister) behave".[13]

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 recognise 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.[14] 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.

Despite its anti-status quo stand on many global issues, India's attitude toward the basic structure of the UN was fundamentally conservative.[15] It accepted the organization and distribution of power in the UN, 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 "UN presence" as interventionist and opposed all efforts to conduct UN directed plebiscites as tests of opinion.[16]

India's procedural conservatism was based both on its commitment to national sovereignty and its desire to protect Indian interests. Its experience with the UN 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 UN. 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.[17][18]

The most persistent of these disputes was the Kashmir conflict. Nehru's faith in the UN and adherence to its principles proved costly on some occasions due to the power play inherent in the organization. This was seen by his decision to refer Pakistan's intervention ('invasion') in disputed Kashmir to the UN Security Council in January 1948.[19] 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 US to support the Pakistani viewpoint that Kashmir's accession to India was disputable and had to be put to the test of a plebiscite.[20] Nehru's hope that the UN would unconditionally instruct Pakistan to vacate the one-third portion of Kashmir that the Pakistani tribesmen and army had occupied fell flat in the face of geopolitical manoeuvrings 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.[21] According to columnist Brahma Chellaney, 'Nehru did not appreciate that the UN was an institution of power politics, not an impartial police force'.[22] 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 US, United Kingdom and France tried to prevent it from forcibly absorbing the Portuguese colony of Goa in 1961.[23] But for the Soviet veto in favour 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 paralysing and hijacking the UN.[19][24]

Overall the period from 1947-1962 was marked by India's active interest in all UN activities under the leadership of V. K. Krishna Menon who was the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations from 1952-1962. Indian leadership and peacekeeping roles in the UN brought it considerable recognition and global standing.[25][26]

India's defeat in the Sino-Indian War came as a grave shock in comparison to its global aspirations and recognition. Large scale hostilities and military reverses dealt a shattering blow to its self-confidence and pride. India was obliged to turn towards the west for military and political support. Following the conflict with China, India became involved in two wars with Pakistan and entered a period of political instability, economic stagnation, food shortages and near-famine conditions. India's role diminished in the UN which came both as a result of its image and a deliberate decision by the post-Nehru political leadership to adopt a low profile at the UN and speak only on vital Indian interests.[27] This change in policy was implemented during the 1965 debate on Kashmir in the Security Council when Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh dramatically stormed out of the session in response to the intemperate language of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's Foreign Minister.[28] In his book "India's Changing Role in the United Nations" Stanley Kochanek shows how 'bilateralism became the guiding principle of Indian foreign policy', relegating the UN to just an 'arena for maintaining such contacts'.[29] Further the Soviet Union's backing became far more important than a slow and indecisive UN Security Council when India obtained its greatest strategic victory by beating China in the 1967 War and breaking up Pakistan into two and carving out independent Bangladesh in 1971.

In 1974, India tested its first nuclear device, the aftermath of which resulted in a nuclear embargo by US and Canada. Soon after the UN's non-proliferation agenda became another irritant that forced New Delhi to view some units of the organization with distaste as fronts for imposing discriminatory regimes instead of promoting universal disarmament.[19] From the very beginning it has refused to lend its support to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty with India's then External Affairs Minister and later President, Pranab Mukherjee in a visit to Tokyo in 2007 commenting that: "If India did not sign the NPT, it is not because of its lack of commitment for non-proliferation, but because we consider NPT as a flawed treaty and it did not recognise the need for universal, non-discriminatory verification and treatment."[30] In short, the 1960s as a whole saw major changes in the global system but a general decline in UN activities.

From January 2011 to January 2013, India was a non permanent member of the UN Security Council. According to Rejaul Karim Laskar, a scholar of India's foreign policy, as a non-permanent member from January 2011 to January 2013, India played a crucial role on important international issues with a view to promote international peace and security as well as India's own national security.[31]

Countries that explicitly and openly support India for UNSC permanent seat.

  India

  Support by UN Members

India has been elected eight times to the UN Security Council.

India has been seeking a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council as a member of the G4, an organization composed of Brazil, Germany, Japan, and India, all who are currently seeking permanent representation. The Russian Federation, United States, United Kingdom and France support India and the other G4 countries gaining permanent seats.[32]

According to the G4 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 fifth largest economy and third largest in terms of purchasing power parity as of 2020. India is the 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,[33][34] all three nations being in South Asia. India has contributed more than 180,000 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.[33]

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

In September 2017 House Resolution 535 was introduced in the 115th United States Congress to support India's permanent seat in UN security council, but the legislation did not proceed to a hearing in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.[35][36]

According to a formal statement by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi at the General Debate of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly :[37]

Today, people of India are concerned whether this reform-process will ever reach its logical conclusion. For how long will India be kept out of the decision-making structures of the United Nations? Reform in the responses, in the processes, and in the very character of the UN is the need of the hour. It is a fact that the faith and respect that the UN enjoys among the 1.3 billion people in India is unparalleled.

— Narendra Modi, 26 September 2020

From 1945 to present, a total of 3 members from India have been appointed as Judges of the International Court of Justice, the primary judicial branch of the United Nations. Moreover, Nagendra Singh was appointed as the President from 1985 to 1988. In addition, 3 member have also served as Judges sitting ad hoc. Now India's Supreme Court Justice 'Justice: Dalveer Bhandari' has been appointed as the judge in International Court of Justice for a second term. Justice Dalveer Bhandari has studied at JNVU Jodhpur and served as judge in both high court and The Supreme Court in India.

In November 2016, Vinod Rai was appointed as Chairman of UN Panel of External Auditors and Shashi Kant Sharma as Member of the United Nations Board of Auditor General.[38]

Joint Inspection Unit is the only independent external oversight body of the United Nations system mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations system-wide. Achamkulangare Gopinathan currently serves as Chairman, since January 2013. He was re-appointed to this post.[39][40]

The logo of the BESC Assembly of Nations, organised by the Bhawanipur Education Society College, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Many schools in India have now started taking up Model United Nations to educate their students about global issues.

On 11 December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted without a vote a resolution commemorating 21 June as the International Yoga Day,[46] recognising the holistic benefits of this timeless practice and its inherent compatibility with the principles and values of the United Nations.[47]

In 2016, with focus on combating inequalities to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, B. R. Ambedkar's birth anniversary was observed at the United Nations for the first time.[48] India has made a plea to declare April 14 as International Equality Day.[49][50]