What Happened to India's Moral Compass on Palestine?

The Wire

5 days ago

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For decades, India championed the Palestinian cause, not out of sentimentality, but from a profound understanding of the devastating effects of colonial occupation.
The bodies of Palestinians who were killed while attempting to access aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel are brought to a clinic in Gaza City on Sunday, July 20, 2025. Photo: AP/PTI
For much of its post-independence history, India stood as a principled voice on the global stage, aligning with the oppressed, opposing colonial domination, and championing anti-imperialist solidarity. At the heart of this stance was unwavering support for Palestine. India not only recognised the plight of Palestinians but actively backed their struggle for self-determination.
Today, however, as Gaza descends into a humanitarian catastrophe, India's silence is striking. This silence marks not only a moral failure but a historical betrayal of its own legacy. Where solidarity with Palestine was once a cornerstone of Indian foreign policy, the country is now forging increasingly close ties with Israel.
From moral clarity to calculated ambiguity
India's policy on the Palestinian question has been evolving for decades, but the transformation since 2014 has been particularly pronounced. Historically, India's support for Palestine aligned with Nehruvian internationalism and a broader commitment to anti-imperialism. This framework began to erode in the early 1990s, marked by the establishment of full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992.
Citing national interest, defence cooperation, and economic pragmatism, successive Indian governments gradually strengthened ties with Israel. The relationship deepened further after the 1999 Kargil War, when India began acquiring Israeli military equipment to modernise its defence capabilities. Over time, India has become Israel's largest defence customer.
Under the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, this strategic partnership has taken on a distinctly ideological character embracing Israel's brand of hardline nationalism and security-first doctrine, while moving away from India's traditional moral posture. The growing alignment with the US-Israel axis reflects not only strategic interests but also a shared political affinity, including a mutual suspicion and hostility toward Muslim populations.
The most significant shift has taken place over the past two years, as ethnic cleansing and genocide unfold in Gaza following Hamas's brutal attack on October 7, 2023. While that attack warrants unequivocal condemnation, the Israeli state's response has exceeded every boundary of legality, morality, and human decency. More than 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including thousands of children have been killed in this endless war. Refugee camps have been bombed, hospitals destroyed, and access to food, water, and medicine deliberately severed. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble.
But there is little significant pressure from either the opposition or public opinion in India demanding a return to a pro-Palestinian policy. As Indian politics has shifted to the right, public perceptions of Israel have also evolved. A recent Pew survey from June 2025 indicates that Indian public opinion remains divided: 34 percent view Israel favourably, while 29 percent hold unfavourable views.
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Globally, however, the picture is far more negative. In 20 out of 24 countries surveyed, a majority view Israel unfavourably. In several Western and Asian nations including Australia, Greece, Japan, and the Netherlands unfavourable sentiment exceeds 75 percent. India's relatively more favourable view of Israel sets it apart from much of global opinion. Yet, hope lies in the growing chorus of voices worldwide who, undeterred by intimidation, continue to speak out in support of Palestine.
Meanwhile, India has transitioned from a position grounded in specific concerns regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict to one informed by broader geopolitical considerations. This evolution signals not merely a change in diplomatic priorities but a deeper structural realignment and reorientation. As a result, even amid escalating violence, India has repeatedly abstained from key United Nations General Assembly resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
For instance, in June, while over three-quarters of UN member states voted in favour of a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages by Hamas, and unimpeded humanitarian access, India chose to abstain.
India declined to condemn what many view as systematic ethnic cleansing, instead, it cited procedural concerns, such as the resolution's failure to explicitly name Hamas, as justification for its abstention. This position stood in stark contrast to the overwhelming support the resolution received from countries like Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, China, and much of the Global South, and from many countries in Europe.
India's shift not only signalled a diplomatic divergence from several of its traditional allies but also marked a striking departure from its historical support for the Palestinian cause. For a nation that once championed anti-colonial movements and aspired to be a moral voice for the Global South, this abstention appears both unacceptable and unconscionable. This reflects not just a diplomatic calculation but a deeper erosion of the moral imagination that once defined India's post-colonial identity. Today, it finds itself aligned with regimes that perpetuate occupation and settler colonialism.
Gaza and the collapse of India's moral imagination
For decades, India championed the Palestinian cause, not out of sentimentality, but from a profound understanding of the devastating effects of colonial occupation. Rooted in its own post-colonial identity and its aspiration to lead the developing world, India's early support for Palestine was both principled and strategic.
Mahatma Gandhi, a staunch advocate of nonviolence, nonetheless rejected the idea of establishing a Jewish state on Palestinian land. Similarly, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru dismissed the 1947 UN Partition Plan as unjust, and India voted against the creation of Israel at the UN General Assembly, one of the few non-Arab nations to do so.
In a landmark diplomatic gesture, India became the first non-Arab country in 1974 to officially recognize the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. This was reaffirmed in 1988 when India took the lead in recognising the State of Palestine shortly after its declaration by the PLO.
This collapse began with the world's lack of resolve to rein in Israel's war in Gaza. Today, Gaza is more than just a conflict zone – it is the epicentre of a profound human tragedy and widespread destruction. The ongoing devastation cannot be justified or dismissed as merely a disproportionate response to the horrific Hamas attacks of October 7. While those attacks were undeniably brutal, they cannot justify the collective punishment of an entire population such as the bombing of refugee camps or the deliberate withholding of food, water, and medicine from over two million people trapped in Gaza.
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Mirjana Spoljaric, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has described the situation as 'worse than hell.' Starvation is being used as a weapon, and hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed while queueing up for urgently needed food or water. The UN estimates that in six weeks about 800 people have been killed in or around food distribution points, most of those deaths in the vicinity of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
According to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, this crisis is part of a 'long-term, intentional, and systematic state-organised forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinian people.' In the face of such harrowing realities, the lack of official outrage and India's muted response is especially jarring.
India's policy shift is not merely political; it is deeply ideological. The BJP has long admired Israel's model of ethno-nationalism, its uncompromising counterterrorism posture, and its blending of religion with state power. These elements align closely with the party's own vision of Hindu majoritarianism in India.
However, this realignment comes at a significant cost. It carries disturbing implications at home also. When foreign policy becomes a vehicle for political expression, it inevitably shapes domestic governance. The same logic used to justify the erasure of Palestinian identity abroad is often mirrored in the marginalisation of minorities within India.
Reclaiming the moral voice
It is not too late for India to return to its principled roots. Calling out the Israeli occupation for what it is – a colonial settler project sustained by violence and systemic racism is not a radical act, but a moral imperative. India must unequivocally support an immediate ceasefire, the unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid, and the restoration of Palestinian rights as enshrined in UN resolutions.
It must condemn genocide and war crimes wherever they occur, regardless of the perpetrator. In particular, India must remember its own anti-colonial legacy – a history of resistance, not complicity. Although Palestine was marked for decolonisation in 1948, that promise remains unfulfilled.
Achieving lasting peace in the region requires confronting this unfinished process, making decolonisation a political imperative. At its core lies a demand for justice: the right to live free from occupation and to return to homes lost through forced displacement. These are not merely political demands, they are basic human rights, upheld by international law.
Zoya Hasan is Professor Emerita, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
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