Limitation Faced by the US Federal Government For Policy toward Indians

What Limitation did the US Federal Government Face as It Devised a Policy toward Indians?

During the Cold War era, there were some ideological restrictions and limitations that US Federal Government faced as it devised a policy towards Indians.

Although the end of the cold war freed India-U.S. relations from the constraints of global bipolarity, New Delhi-Washington relations continued for a decade to be affected by the burden of history, most notably the longstanding India-Pakistan rivalry. Recent years, however, have witnessed a sea change in bilateral relations, with more positive inter-actions becoming the norm. India's swift offer of full support for U.S.-led anti-terrorism operations after the September 2001 attacks on the United States is widely viewed as continuing U.S. concern in South Asia focuses especially on the historic and ongoing tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, tensions rooted in unfinished busi-ness from the 1947 Partition, and competing claims to the former princely state of Kashmir. The United States also seeks to prevent the regional proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Both India and Pakistan have so far resisted U.S. and international pressure to sign the major international (Krishnaswami, pp. 119-149).

In May 1998, India conducted a series of unannounced nuclear tests that evoked inter-national condemnation. Pakistan reported conducting its own nuclear tests less than three weeks later. As a result of these tests, President Clinton imposed wide-ranging sanctions on both countries, as mandated under the Arms Export Control Act. Many of these sanctions gradually were lifted through congressional-executive cooperation from 1998 to 2000. The remaining nuclear sanctions on India (and Pakistan) were removed by President Bush in September 2001 (Krishnaswami, pp. 119-149).

The United States also has been concerned with human rights issues related to regional dissidence and separatist movements in Kashmir, Punjab, and ...