Canada and India

Abstract

Canada and India share a Commonwealth heritage of parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, commitment to secularism, and the challenge of unity in diversity through pluralistic power-sharing struc- tures of accommodation. Both countries also have an internationalist outlook with a multilateralist bent that includes a strong belief in the role of the United Nations (un). Considering this, they have had a sur- prisingly aloof bilateral relationship. Both are engaged in world affairs, yet seem largely disconnected from each other. Canada is among the wealthiest, healthiest, and best educated countries of the world. India fares poorly on economic and human development indices, ranking in the bottom third.

Over the past decade, Canada and India have pursued different international agendas. Where their paths have crossed, as often as not they have had to cross metaphorical swords as well. Both are trapped in political constructions of national identity in world affairs, for example, their membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (nato) and the Non-Aligned Movement (nam), which may have passed their use-by dates. If this is true, there may be scope for course corrections and adjustments to contemporary and emerging realities for both countries, and this could bring them closer together. How- ever, although they may come into cooperative alignment on specific issues to their mutual benefit, a return to the harmony of the golden era of the 1950s, when High Commissioner Escott Reid had close ac- cess to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his inner circle of advis- ers, is unlikely. Show more