FROM HISTORIC STRUGGLES TO AN UNMATCHED HARMONY: THE COMPELLING STORY OF INDIAN- AFRICAN DIPLOMACY

The real essence of this kinship [between Asia and Africa] its social heritage of slavery; the discrimination and insult; and this heritage ... extends through yellow Asia and into the South Seas. It is this unity that draws me to Africa. (W.E.B Du Bois)

W hy is it that the term ‘Global North’ is less frequently used, or has less of a ring, yet the ‘Global South’ is immediately identifiable? Perhaps this is because there is no such idea of the ‘Global North’. The northern and western countries themselves paradoxically constitute the ‘center’ of the world, with many disciplines such as history, philosophy, politics, and law being abstracted from western ideologies. The term ‘Global South’ was itself coined in the 1980s, when the term ‘the Third World’ was being contested as a replacement for post-colonial countries, pointing to its depiction as somewhat side-lined in the front-line world of political affairs. However, in dissecting the relationship between India and Africa in the post-colonial era, we can view the Global South as more than just a navigation point relating to the ambitions of the North, rather providing it with an agency and metaphorical significance that reflects the inextricable links between history and modern-day diplomacy. Their contingent agendas are marked by post-colonial identities emanating from historical struggles between the metropole and colonies, and this collective sense of ‘trans-

patriotism’ has led to a unique diplomatic relation between the two.

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After India’s independence from Britain in 1947, an event which marked a turning point in British confidence in the imperial endeavour, Prime Minister J.Nehru pledged to support nationalist movements and anti-colonial resistance in Africa, which lasted throughout the African decolonisation period of 1956-63. The famous 1955 Bandung Conference, which India led, resulted in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) between the Asia-African region. The NAM had three goals; i) promote economic development in the region, ii) to enhance cultural ties that may have been severed by European colonial rule, and iii) to promote the extension of human rights and self-determination. In essence, the NAM symbolised something much deeper- a transfer of agency to the ‘Global South’, who had for a long period of history been confined into a subservient

framework. This article looks at how the legacies of diplomacy promised in 1955 have carried on into today, particularly in the field of nuclear and technology relations, politico-economic diplomacy, and healthcare. It aims to bring into question the nature of shared experiences, geographical reputations, and the ethical power of such diplomacy.

TECHNOLOGY AND HEALTHCARE- A HUMANITARIAN MECHANISM FOR PROGRESS

The exchange of scientific innovation and technological progress across the field of international relations is vital now more than ever. One need only look at the rapid global effort in producing vaccinations against COVID-19 infections, to discover how these intellectual transactions between countries signify a sense of humanity amidst the chaotic world in which we live. Afro-Indian ‘scientific diplomacy’ has certainly surpassed much of the criteria needed for successful innovative diplomacy. One of the most well-known initiatives is that of the Pan African e-Network, launched in 2008. This allows a network of communication between Indian and Africa on tele-education, tele-medicine and VVIP connectivity. It was intended to provide a ‘seamless/integrated’ satellite to connect both countries together through wireless network, allowing for premier educational and healthcare institutions across India and Africa. As of 2017, the PAeN project has allowed 22,000 students obtained degrees in graduate and undergraduate disciplines from various Indian universities through the network, and there has also been a number of further initiatives such as a pre-feasibility study on Continental Mass Education TV (CMETV) and setting up of an African Virtual (e-) University. In addition, as part of the program, over 67,000 Continuous Medical Education sessions were held virtually with both Indian and African students since 2017, providing training for doctors and nurses to advance the transactions of medical knowledge and modernisation.

Subsequently, innovations in healthcare and pharmaceutical industries remain unmatched in light of India and Africa’s cooperation. Since the 1990s, there has been a seismic shift from post-colonial socialist states to an emergence of economic liberalism, to encourage private entrepreneurship and facilitated corporation programmes. Africa and India have become imbricated into this process, harnessing their new strategic interests as a result of free market policies. The new Millenium Development Goals (MDG) adopted by the United Nations in 2000, has been wholeheartedly embraced in Africa and India, wherein health makes up a large portion of the plan’s targets. Since its implementation, both countries have leveraged their knowledge-based and high-skill industries, resulting in exchange of research for the generic drug market and low-cost therapies. Currently, 90% of HIV drugs in Africa are sourced from Indian pharmaceutical companies such as Cipla, revealing how the Indian-African health agenda reflects a stabilizing structure of healthcareinnovation and economic progress.

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Inevitably in light of the past year’s events, COVID-19 has created a new window of opportunity to put this trans-national cooperation to the test. The Indian External Affairs Minister in April of 2020 had assigned an ‘Africa-focus working day’, in which a series of innovative conversations with Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Mali, were held to discuss joint ventures in providing medical assistance between the borders. Medical assistance was provided by India to twenty African countries and the Heads of State of Egypt, Uganda and South Africa also took personal initiative to ensure that all claims made were backed by the exchanges of drugs and medical devices on a humanitarian basis.

Therefore, the ‘crisis’ of today’s world is in fact a pivotal check on how far this South-South cooperation can stretch, and it is indisputable that because of decades-long nurturing of this diplomatic synergy, India and Africa are only strengthened by such challenges.

NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY- WHERE POSTCOLONIAL CONSCIOUSNESS COMES INTO QUESTION.

So far, all appears well. Science and technology, the driving forces of global prosperity, seem to propel India and Africa in the same expedient direction. However, can this diplomatic cooperation ever be regarded as giving too much leeway, to the point where national security comes into question? In order to explore the nature of this debate , it is important to establish a contextual background. Nuclear energy is now an invaluable resource in the global machine. India’s rapid rise as a global power has inevitably brought on an increased demand for nuclear energy to sustain its technology-heavy economy, with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India predicting the use of 8000

tonnes of uranium (the main element of nuclear power) by 2035, 10 times its current usage. Since 2005, where the USA began to work towards full civil energy and trade with India, the country had struggled to maintain efficient stockpiles of uranium to contribute to the partnership. Africa’s role becomes pertinent here; the country provides 20% ofthe world’s recoverable uranium and is well positioned to meet India’s needs.

However, the obstacle lies in the fact that in 1996, African nations signed the Pelindaba Treaty, a non-proliferation nuclear treaty which aimed to limit military use of nuclear power, and only use it to promote human security through peaceful nuclear cooperation. India’s increasing military concerns regarding China and Pakistan have placed the notion of ‘diplomacy’ into a contestable field. The non-proliferation decrees codified in the Pelindaba Treaty come into conflict with the post-colonial consciousness of Indian-African relations, and the imperatives of African national law, suggesting perhaps that this diplomacyis a delicate balancing act that can founder in the face of political pragmatism. For example, whilst since 2007 India undertook uranium exploration in Niger, Namibia (2009) and Malawi (2010), regions such as Egypt resisted the regularising of nuclear cooperation, letting the weight fall in favour of national priorities. Indian media outlets even claimed that ‘India today is very different from the India of the Cold War days. We are now recognised as an emerging economic power, no longer dependent on the charity of others for our economic progress. In these circumstances, does it make sense to cling to old shibboleths and slogans such as ‘‘non-aligned solidarity’’ in a vastly transformed world order?’. Hence,it is clear that ‘post-colonial consciousness’ and diplomacy can take on different meanings for India and Africa. More importantly, it suggests that the ‘Global South’ is perhaps not as unified as the term evokes, and it is rather that when it comes to economic and legal self-interest, cooperation may not necessarily take precedence. Yet, focussing for too long on nuclear relations can strain our eyes to the point where the true nature of a flourishing ‘Global South’ humanity is obscured. As will be evident below, a harsh

severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries is highly unlikely, as when it comes to the determining moments of politics that go beyond energy and power, India and Africa remain anchored in an analogous identity.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY- PROMISES OF THE FUTURE.

W.P.Sidhu of New York University claimed that up until 2014, ‘Africa has remained a neglected continent for India’. We have already discussed some limits of Indian-African cooperation regarding the terms of their nuclear exchange, and there are certainly other points which may give credence to this view. For example, the India-Africa Forum Summit of 2015 has largely been seen by Sidhu and others as a panicked response to the 2000 Forum on China-Africa cooperation. Undoubtedly, China has flexed its economic muscle on Africa, financing US$ 143 billion worth of African businesses and governments between 2000-2017. However, here the clear South-South connection is revealed, wherein India’s role in Africa is instead based on liberating, communicative and demand driven policy.

If there is one connecting thread in this discussion, it is the thread of a collective consciousness, one that has its roots entrenched in the darker abysses of history. During colonial rule in the 19th century, over 3 million Indians were forcefully sent to Africa, in order to serve as indentured labourers (a form of extra-constitutional slavery). Hence, since the 1830s, as migration continued from both sides, both cultures became imbricated into one common narrative regarding similar constitutional structures and territorial identity. It is fascinating that these shared experiences of the past are reflected in contemporary relations, highlighting how history exists on one long dynamic continuum, faintly or unsubtly embedding itself into every cavity of the global political realm. The third IAFS held in September 2020 is revelatory of this. The summit was held to discuss additional cooperation between the countries and the key takeaways from the meeting include an ongoing grant assistance of US$700 million,

the maintenance of various big-ticket projects completed by India in Africa (such as the completion of over 80% of the scholarship and capacity building schemes operating Rift Valley textiles factory in Kenya and the Presidential Office in Ghana), and the

between both countries. Additionally, in a globalising world, India and Africa again

cooperate to increase their participation in UN Peacekeeping missions. Africa has a

number of military personnel training in India, whilst India has maintained successful

defence partnerships with regions such as Zambia, Botswana and Uganda. Both

countries also continue to combine efforts to contain piracy on the Somalian coast, and strategies of both countries, lies the powerful underbelly of a ‘hard’ core security and combat international terrorism. M.Nozomi's theory that beneath the ‘soft’ diplomacy

political interests, is therefore pertinent to our understanding of their unique South-

South power relations.

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With regards to economic exchange, India and Africa certainly do not falter. Since India’s economic liberation in 1991, Africa has become crucial for natural resources and developments of new markets, and India remains a key market in Africa for investment, technology and capital goods. Prime Minister N. Modi contends the significance of the ‘multi-alignment foreign policy’, which has allowed India to make use of strategic partnerships with Africa and develop political ties with the region. Some specific achievements of the policy include the Special Commonwealth Africa Assistance Program (SCAAP), which involves grants from the Indian government to finance African infrastructure and engage with its multilateral institutions. Moreover, the large network of Indian firms in Africa such as Tata and AirTel, along with both countries’ commitments to the Indo-Pacific ‘Security and Growth’ agenda, has allowed for the Indian-African partnership to transcend all expected boundaries imposed by the west. These new initiatives and increasing delivery speeds has led to a sustained momentum of diplomacy between both countries, highlighting the power of these joint economic mechanisms in modelling the importance of diplomatic statecraft in the Global South.

CONCLUSION AND THOUGHTS

What we have alluded to in the course of this discussion can be traced back to the notion of the ‘development paradigm’, a concept originating in the 17th century and first established in German philosophy. This intellectual concept states that development is equated with the deployment of a pre-existing potential, a manifestation of utopian realities conjured between states and civilisations. Unfortunately, the course of history has not always adhered to the development paradigm as a source of imposing goodness on humanity; colonialism, state oppression and racism are exemplary of this. However, from a post-colonial perspective, India and Africa’s relations offer a new meaning to the dichotomies between North and South,

servitude and control, and progress and stagnation. Their specific development paradigm pertains to relations of cooperation, security and prosperity, which binds Indian and African policy. Mahatma Gandhi’s statement that ‘Commerce between India and Africa will be of services and ideas, not of manufactured goods in the fashion of western exploiters’ captures the essence of the uniqueness of their relations; Africa and India’s historic political engagement has elevated it beyond the conventional North-South binary, and both countries have evidently taken on an initiative, albeit with challenges in the process, to demonstrate that they no longer depend on western powers for economic or political success. Rather, together they use the past to leverage their own collective ambitions, whether that be in the form of technology, pharmaceutical progress, or political support. One thing to learn from this, therefore, is that the ‘Global South’ should not be associated with lack of agency, dependency or historical stagnation. Conversely, as we have explored, the ‘Global South’ itself is its own exclusive sphere of history, and subsequently its own passage to diplomacy, characterised by a conviction to eclipse the manacles of its past.

FIN.