Considering the prominent role India has played in the United Nations since independence, it is important to remember that its involvement in international organizations predates the advent of the U.N. by over 25 years. An original signatory to the Treaty of Versailles (1919), India became a founding member of the League of Nations. As a non-sovereign part of the British Empire and the League's only colonial member, however, India faced a set of unique problems in its interaction with the League; its role was, as a result, both complex and anomalous. / This dissertation analyzes India's membership of the League from its entry in 1919 to the outbreak of the Second World War. In addition to examining changes in India's status in the British Empire during the First World War and detailing its entry into the League at the Paris Peace Conference, the work surveys the various influences on India's League policy. The work also explores the background of India's League delegates. Although appointed by the British Government of India and traditionally seen, therefore, as mere collusionists, most were actually moderate nationalists operating outside the Gandhi-Nehru fold. They saw collaboration with the British in India's League affairs, despite obvious restrictions, as beneficial to India in developing its international persona. / Despite clear limitations, India's role in the League was significant. Membership of the League offered Indians the opportunity of dispelling Eurocentric misperceptions about India and of showing that Indians were fully capable of grappling with complex global issues. India's involvement in League work, particularly in the areas of opium and slavery suppression, public health, and intellectual cooperation, was of demonstrable benefit to the country as a whole. India's League membership also provided an initial testing ground for its, and Pakistan's, later membership in the United Nations, and as a training ground for a future cadre of Indian and Pakistani diplomats. Finally, India's presence at Geneva helped secure for it an important status in the international system, giving it, and Pakistan, a comparative advantage over other newly independent countries in the post-Second World War period. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: A, page: 2105. / Major Professor: Bawa Satinder Singh. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77192 |
| Contributors | Schmidt, Karl Joseph., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 333 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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