The strategic culture influencing Indian foreign policy under Nehru was – for all intents and purposes – the strategic culture of Nehru. The content of the strategic culture, the ideas of moral and political greatness, as well as the conflation of ideals and interests, are the product of the application of the national identity formation process onto die field of foreign affairs through the ideological politics described in the preceding chapter.

It would be wrong to think of the relationship between national identity and foreign policy as being a one way street – with an actor and an objective world upon which the actor impacts. An actor defines himself through his actions and through the reception of his actions by others. An identity built on and reflected by values takes on a dynamic of its own, it reflects back and forth, as in a gallery of mirrors, an image of the self in the world and an image of the world in the self. A second gallery of mirrors stands between the national identity and the identity of a political entrepreneur, each influencing the other. Nehru was both builder and – with his success – increasingly a consumer of a modern Indian identity. He believed what he wanted to believe and what he needed to believe in order to convince others of his version of Indianness. Like all great idealists, he was so convincing because he was himself taken in by his idea and vision, believing firmly in it, taking on the proposed identity himself.