My paper will discuss how newly independent India developed a rather peculiar historical discourse when confronted with modernity. In the realm of foreign policy, this confrontation was spelt out in ways that are not adequately explained using mainstream tools of foreign policy analysis. The paper will contend that lessons from the historiography of Indian foreign policy can be drawn to reflect on the epistemic crisis affecting the theorisation of Indian foreign policy in the 21st century. Equally, the paper will contend that the historicization of some of those issues will help broaden the scope of foreign policy analysis as a method.
