Obstacles to Good Work in Indian International Relations

Abstract

This article suggests that, from 1947 to the late 1980s, Indian International Relations (IIR) led the developing world and certainly Asian IR. Since then, China, Korea and Japan seem to have taken the lead. The article defines the nature of ‘good work’ as ‘good published work’ and argues that there are five key obstacles to better published work in IIR: the neglect of theory; the failure to define a series of animating puzzles, problematiques and problem-solving agendas; the lack of methodological training; the quality of teaching; and the mismanagement of professional life. Three reasons are advanced for the origins and persistence of these obstacles: post-colonial parochialism; the influence of the formative moment of the field in India; and the relationship of Political Science/IR to the Indian state. The article concludes that the remedies are primarily in the hands of Indian scholars and not with the government.