State the components of India’s security strategy.

India has received both traditional and non-traditional threats to security, both from within and outside its borders. India security strategy has four broad components which are explained below:

a. India has strengthened its military capabilities because it has been involved in conflicts with his neighbors especially Pakistan and China. It is surrounded by nuclear arms countries in the South Asian region. Therefore India decided to conduct a nuclear test in 1998 which was justified by the Indian government in terms of safeguarding national security.

b. India has strengthened the international norms and international Institutions to protect its security interest. The first prime minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru supported the cause of Asian solidarity, decolonization, disarmament and the United Nations as a forum in which the international conflicts could be settled. It also took the initiative to formulate a non-discriminatory and nonproliferation regime in which all the countries would have the same rights and obligations regarding Weapons of mass destruction including nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. It supported the setting up of NIEO- New international economic order. It followed the nonalignment policy to remain outside the politics of the two major superpowers. In 1997 it signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol with 160 other countries. Indian troops have also been sent abroad on the UN peacekeeping mission to support the cooperative security initiative.

c. India has also tried to successfully meet the security challenges within the country. Some of the military groups from the area such as Nagaland, Mizoram, and Punjab have tried to break away from India from time to time. India has preserved national unity by adopting a democratic system that allows different communities and groups to freely articulate their grievances and share political power.

d. India has tried to develop the economy in such a manner that economic inequalities and the high level of poverty can be reduced. It has not been yet successful in this regard. The democratically elected government tries to combine economic growth with human development.