India’s sovereignty and membership of the international system in 1947 was preceded by at least three decades of vigorous participation in various international fora, both as a movement for independence and as a colony. An
'anomalous international person' (Poulose 1970) from before independence, it followed that the postcolonial Indian state’s stands on anticolonialism, decolonisation and self-determination of peoples’ was a central plank of its foreign policy. Apart from its obvious moral legitimacy amidst the rhetorical force of the self-determination popularised by Woodrow Wilson (Manela 2005), such strategy was also soundly in tune with third world solidarity, a force bearing influence much beyond its means in the international arena.