The Practice of International Relations Discipline in India: Obstacles and Challenges
| Published date | 01 December 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23210230241290884 |
| Author | Nikhil Goyal |
| Date | 01 December 2024 |
The Practice of International
Relations Discipline in India:
Obstacles and Challenges
Nikhil Goyal1
Abstract
The practice of International Relations (IR) in India dates back to the 1950s and the establishment of the
Indian School of International Studies (ISIS). Despite an early start, IR in India struggled to establish itself
as a discipline due to domestic and institutional issues. Prominent criticisms of Indian IR include a lack
of methodological rigour, an absence of theory, and low contributions to high-ranking journals. While
engagement with questions of post-colonialism and decolonization is not new to IR, its impact on India
continues to be limited. This essay explores the issues and challenges associated with the practice of IR
in India by taking a de-parochial and decolonial outlook. I argue that IR in India developed as a received
discourse from the West with little to no engagement with India’s past, statist assumptions, and impe-
rial underpinnings of the discipline.
Keywords
International relations, decolonization, nation-state, West, discipline
‘The true power of the West lies not in its political and technological might but in its power to dene’
(Nandy, 1998)
Criticisms of international relations (IR) in India often highlight its limitations, such as the lack of meth-
odological rigour, shortage of resources, and absence of theory. Despite the depth of these critiques, a
majority of them suffer from parochialism because of their dependence on the West. The dependency on
the West has stunted the growth of discipline by limiting the Indian practice to the canon, namely real-
ism, liberalism, and constructivism. Another consequence of Indian dependency on Western IR is its
neglect of diverse voices, resulting in empire-like practices within IR in India. In sum, the Indian depen-
dency on the West has affected the development of the decolonial/indigenous IR in India by limiting the
opportunities for meaningful engagement. In this essay, I explore the mechanisms and means through
which the West limits the opportunities of a decolonial IR in India by controlling the epistemological,
ontological, and methodological contours of the discipline. By deploying a decolonial and de-parochial
outlook, I argue that IR in India developed as a received discourse from the West with little to no engage-
ment with the disciplinary past and practices. Moreover, IR in India failed to reflect on its own past by
Teaching-Learning Politics in India
Studies in Indian Politics
12(2) 336–345, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s)
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/23210230241290884
journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
Note: This section is coordinated by Rajeshwari Deshpande (rajeshwari.deshpande@gmail.com).
1 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Corresponding author:
Nikhil Goyal, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada.
E-mail: nikhilgoyalatnow@gmail.com
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