Over the years there has been a lot of debate on India's foreign policy. Since India is no longer a sluggard and decisions made by India affects a lot of non-Indians, many actors are giving voice to their opinions about Indian foreign policy. One of these opinions refers to Gandhian philosophy. Many people are of the opinion that a country which is the birthplace of the Mahatma should not be flexing its military muscle the way it is doing now. They question India spending Billions of dollars on a space programme when more than 37% of India is below poverty line and most of the population do not have basic sanitation facilities.
At this point I would like to present my view that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was not born a Mahatma. In fact in his earlier days he was what we can call a subject of the british crown. He was a barrister and even went to South Africa to practice law. What made the man great were his experiences and his unique way of viewing these experiences. The turning point was probably when he was thrown out of a first class compartment despite possessing a ticket, just on the basis that he was an Indian. There was a sign saying thus: "Dogs and Indians not allowed". Gandhiji returned home to India a changed man. The times were different. There was no way that the Indians would be able to win an armed conflict against the strongest empire in the world. It had been tried before in 1857, and we had failed. The Mahatma probably saw civil disobedience and non-violence as the only effective way to oust the British from India.
But today the times are different. India is present in a very volatile neighbourhood. To our south the LTTE continues to forment trouble in Sri Lanka. They were also responsible for the assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi. To the west, Pakistan is becoming increasingly unstable. Its tribal areas have now been completely talibanized. Pakistan also happens to be nuclear state with the ability to cover most of the Indian sub-continent with its North Korea supplied ballistic missiles. They are said to be building fissile material at an extremely fast pace and will soon possess more than a hundred WMD's. To our east, China is emerging as the next superpower and the relationship between our governments is not exactly cheerful. Nepal has been taken over by communists and Bangladesh has become a hub for naxalites targetting the Indian north-east.
In this kind of a neighbourhood India cannot afford to not increase its military strength. India is now the largest importer of military goods. As far as investing in high cost research areas like space goes, I don't really see the point of any debate here. India's recently acquired global clout can attribute some of its success to successful research by India in the high-tech sector. The chandryaan mission is a result of this. In addition, India's space programme costs a fraction of what the US or the European programme costs. In addition, this programme is a revenue generator and also helps in various fields such as agriculture. More than 705 of Indian population depends on agriculture to sustain themselves.
