A host of attributes should make India a staunch supporter of a global, liberal order. Yet since the days of its first prime minister, the country has been ambivalent about support for liberal/democratic principles and institutions abroad. This paper will briefly review well-known features of India’s post-independence historical record on the liberal order. It will examine the underlying reasons that explain the positions the country adopted, focus on the incremental policy shifts at the Cold War’s end, and then discuss the country’s likely support for such issues in the future.
