India and Palestine… From Gandhi and Arafat to Future Partnership

Author: Bassam Zakarneh

When we talk about India and Palestine, we should not start from recent years or from the growing Indian-Israeli relations, as if the relationship between India and Palestine began and ended with the balance of current interests. This relationship is much deeper and was formed at a time when India was fighting for liberation from colonialism while the Palestinian people were fighting for freedom, independence, and self-determination. Therefore, India's solidarity with Palestine was not merely a transient diplomatic stance but was inherently linked to the philosophy of the Indian national movement and its values in resisting colonialism and adhering to freedom, justice, and the right of peoples to determine their own destiny.

India's solidarity with the Palestinian people was influenced by the experience of the Indian liberation movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and was solidified in Indian foreign policy during Jawaharlal Nehru's era. Thus, invoking Gandhi in discussions about Palestinian-Indian relations is not merely a reference to a historical figure but a reminder of shared intellectual and ethical roots. Gandhi became a global symbol of freedom, justice, and resistance to colonialism—values in which Palestinians found expression for their aspirations to end occupation and achieve their right to freedom and independence.

With India's independence, Nehru carried this vision into foreign policy, viewing Palestine not merely as an Arab issue but as a matter linked to a broader principle: the right of peoples to self-determination. From here, we understand India's historical positions regarding the Palestinian cause. In 1974, India was the first non-Arab country to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and in 1988, it was among the first countries to recognize the State of Palestine.

At the heart of this historical relationship was Yasser Arafat, who was not merely a Palestinian president visiting a friendly country but a figure closely associated with the image of Palestine in the Indian political memory and with the special relationship between India and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Arafat recognized early on the importance of India and its status, and he was keen to maintain the relationship at the highest levels, understanding that India was a major country that viewed the Palestinian issue from the perspective of national liberation and the right of peoples to self-determination, rather than merely from the perspective of transient political interests.

The relationship did not end with the departure of the symbol Abu Ammar. When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ramallah in 2018, marking the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Palestine, he made sure to visit the grave of Yasser Arafat, a gesture that carried both political and humanitarian significance, reflecting the depth of the shared memory between the two peoples. At that time, India reaffirmed its continued support for the Palestinian people and the development of their institutions, indicating that the historical relationship has not faded, even with the changing regional and international environment around it.

However, the Palestinian-Indian relationship has never been merely a matter of governments and embassies. This is perhaps one of the most important points that we should revisit today. For decades, a large number of Palestinians have enrolled in Indian universities and institutes, spending years of their lives in Indian cities. They returned to Palestine carrying with them knowledge of the language, culture, and society of India, along with personal memories and experiences that official agreements alone could not create. In fact, some of these students married Indian women, forming Palestinian-Indian families whose roots extend between the two countries. Their children continue to live in India or Palestine, carrying in their memories and identities a direct connection to both communities.

This human experience represents a true diplomatic asset that we have not invested in sufficiently. Palestinian graduates of Indian universities, Palestinian-Indian families, students who lived in India, and their friends who learned about Palestine through them can form natural and sustainable bridges between the two peoples. Palestinian diplomacy, universities, and civil society institutions can reconnect with this segment and organize it within a broader framework for cultural, academic, and economic exchange, transforming the personal relationships accumulated over decades into a soft power that contributes to rebuilding the Palestinian-Indian relationship.

The relationships between countries are not built solely in embassies, but also in universities, homes, research centers, markets, and among people. A relationship between a Palestinian student at an Indian university or a Palestinian-Indian family, or a friendship that was formed decades ago between a Palestinian and an Indian, may be more capable of lasting and having an impact than many official relationships that change with the change of governments.

From here, we arrive at the most important question: What has happened over the past decades? It is certain that India has changed, just as the world around it has changed. Today, India is a major economic, technological, and political power with wide strategic interests. Its relations with Israel have developed significantly since the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1992, and these relations now encompass areas such as technology, defense, agriculture, water, security, and others, especially in recent years.

However, reading this development as evidence that India has abandoned Palestine would be an incomplete reading. India still officially reaffirms its support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and continues to provide developmental and humanitarian aid to Palestine. It has also maintained its political relations with the Palestinian leadership. Therefore, the issue is not simply that India has distanced itself from Palestine, but rather that the nature of Indian policy and its international interests have changed, and that Palestinian diplomacy must seriously ask itself whether it has kept pace with these transformations sufficiently.

Here, a real Palestinian responsibility emerges, not from a place of self-flagellation, but from a place of reviewing tools and methods. The India that Yasser Arafat, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the leaders of the Palestinian national movement dealt with in the last century is not the same India today. It has become a leading country in technology, economy, artificial intelligence, industry, and scientific research, with universities, research centers, companies, youth, and a private sector that all constitute important components of its foreign policy and its image of the world.

Therefore, it is not enough to remember India's historical positions towards Palestine; we must build upon them and provide them with new content. We need a comprehensive Palestinian strategy towards India that focuses on enhancing political and parliamentary visits, expanding university and cultural exchanges, and building partnerships in technology, artificial intelligence, health, agriculture, water, energy, and education, as well as encouraging Indian investment in Palestine and opening the door for Indian companies and institutions to contribute to building the Palestinian economy and institutions.

We must systematically reactivate popular diplomacy and benefit from the thousands of Palestinians who studied in India, the graduates of Indian universities, the Palestinian-Indian families, and the network of friends and relationships that have formed between the two peoples over decades. These individuals can be part of the project to rebuild bridges and contribute to introducing the new Indian generation to Palestine while simultaneously familiarizing Palestinians with the new India.

This vision should not be based on asking India to choose between Palestine and Israel, as this does not reflect the logic of international relations nor the nature of Indian interests. What is required is to maintain the presence of Palestine in Indian politics and consciousness and to remind that the values upon which the Indian liberation movement was founded, foremost among them justice, freedom, and the right of peoples to self-determination, still represent an important foundation that can unite the two peoples.

The strength of the Palestinian-Indian relationship lies not only in the past but in the potential to transform this past into a shared future. From Gandhi and Nehru to Arafat and the Palestinian leaders who built bridges with India, to the thousands of Palestinian students who studied in its universities, some of whom married Indian women and established families with roots still extending between Palestine and India, there is a rich political and humanitarian history that forms a basis for building upon.

India stood by Palestine at a time when the Palestinian cause was seeking recognition and support in the world. Today, Palestine needs to view India as more than a historical friend; it needs to see it as a potential partner in education, development, technology, economy, and institution building. In turn, India needs to see Palestine as a true partner in a region of strategic importance to it, not merely as a cause discussed in international forums.

Historical friendship does not mean that we remain prisoners of the past; rather, it means using this history to build the future. Therefore, what is required is not to restore the Palestinian-Indian relationship as it was during Arafat's era, but to reshape it in a way that suits the new India and the Palestine we wish to build.

From Gandhi to Nehru, and from Nehru to Arafat, and from Arafat to thousands of Palestinians who lived and studied in India and built friendships and families there, the threads of a historical and human relationship should not be allowed to weaken.

India is not just a historical friend of Palestine, and if we read the transformations well and invested in our shared history, values, and human connections, it can become an important partner in the future of Palestine.