India’s Policy of Recognition of States and Governments
By: Rahul Yadav
Tags: International Relations, Recognition Policy, India, Indian Foreign Policy, Indian Politics

With the growing interdependence in the modern world, States now practice different policies of Recognition. Before 1919, there wasn’t any fixed criteria for the recognition except the dates of Independence. But with the emergence of the League of Nations and subsequently United Nations, the policy came into existence. The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, also known as Montevideo Convention 1933, sets out some generally accepted parameters which are-

1. A permanent population

2. A defined territory

3. Government

4. Capacity to enter into relations with the other states

To study and understand India’s Policy of Recognition of States and Governments, I’ve taken into consideration the case of recognition of People’s Republic of China. The theory and practice of recognition strained twice in China. Firstly — Sun Yet Sen (1912–1913) and secondly Mao Tse-Tung (1949). Of both, the latter drew more attention. Government of India in 1947 appointed Sardar K.M. Panikkar as India’s First Ambassador in China. Panikkar shaped India’s recognition policy.

“Panikkar laid the foundation for cordiality and trust between the two great powers of Asia”

People’s Republic of China approached governments for diplomatic relations on the principles of Equality, mutual interest and mutual respect for sovereign and territorial rights. Even if the top officials including C. Rajagopalachari, the then Governor-General, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wanted a slower policy, Panikkar was of the view that the recognition to the new government should be given as soon as the Chiang-Kai Shek Government had lost even the small area that it held. And then the Chiang Government sought refuge in the Island of Formosa.

India virtually, not technically, was the first to recognise China outside the Russian bloc in the Commonwealth and second non-Communist nation after Burma.

The reaction in the country was unanimous and overwhelming but was quite mixed outside India. As the editorials of those times had highlighted. When in the second week of December 1949, the Nationalist Government was literally ousted from China, the Government of India came to the conclusion that it was “not a matter of choice”

Prime Minister Nehru addressed,

“it is a question of recognising a major event in history and of appreciating it and dealing with it… when it was clear that the new Chinese Government was in possession of practically the entire mainland of China, when it was quite clear that this Government was stable, and that there was no force which was likely to supplant it or push it away, we offered recognition to this new government and suggested that we might exchange diplomatic missions”

A few months later India’s Chief delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, Sir Benegal Rau, expounded India’s policy by quoting Oppenheim’s views:

“A Government which enjoys the habitual obedience of the bulk of the population with a reasonable expectancy of permanence, can be said to represent the state in question and as such to be entailed to recognition. The bulk of the practice of States, in the matter of recognition of Governments, is based on the principles of effectiveness thus conceived”

The second determinant as Nehru observed-

“It has been the misfortune of Asia during the past some hundred years not only to have colonial regimes, but to be often the theater of war for others and by other. We wish that this business… in Asia should cease … ”

India developed an emotional complex expressed in the term Anti-Colonialism. And the other determinant India-China relations- friendly neighbours. India’s policy of recognition was adopted by Jefferson in the early years of American Republic and the Government of United Kingdom.

Conclusion

In recognising States, India has accorded recognition as soon as the conditions of statehood have been fulfilled. Policy considerations did exercise a fair degree of influence in cases where countries had been divided by the big Powers after the second World War. So far India has refused to recognise any such divided State. In India the decision to recognise a particular State or Government has always been taken by the Cabinet at the federal level but in matters of Israel, Parliament played a role which was not of inconsiderable importance.

Finally, Recognition Policy of India falls in line with all other Governments, whose recognition policies have, at time, been influenced by factors other than those prescribed by International Law. But reasons for India were unique whereas for Leading Nations, they were importance of security and economic interests.

Whenever Extra-Legal factors have influenced India’s recognition policy, they have been motivated by the desire to save a region from being territorially and politically dismembered, to help a region obtain its political freedom, and to establish democratic values in the country in question. These considerations may be of no legal importance, but politically their importance cannot be exaggerated.