India–United States relations
and the United States established diplomatic relations in 1947 following the independence of India from the United Kingdom. Over the decades, the relationship has evolved into a broad-based strategic partnership grounded in shared democratic values, commitment to individual freedoms, and respect for the rule of law. As of 2025, India–United States relations encompass close cooperation across defense, technology, trade, education, and people-to-people ties, reflecting converging interests in promoting stability, prosperity, and a rules-based international order, even as differences persist on specific trade and energy issues.
Background
Early engagement and Cold War context
India and the United States began engaging with one another soon after India’s independence in 1947, with early cooperation in areas such as food security, education, and institution-building. However, the broader geopolitical dynamics of the Cold War shaped the trajectory of the relationship. In 1955, Pakistan joined the Baghdad Pact, later renamed the Central Treaty Organization, in which the United States held observer status, resulting in a limited strategic alignment between Washington and Islamabad.India, prioritizing strategic autonomy and decolonization-era sovereignty, pursued an independent foreign policy and was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, seeking to avoid formal alignment with either bloc during the Cold War. While India also developed close ties with the Soviet Union during this period, engagement with the United States continued in parallel through diplomacy, development assistance, and people-to-people exchanges. Differences over regional security, including U.S. support for Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, led to periods of strain, but did not sever bilateral ties.
The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked a turning point. India’s economic liberalization and the emergence of a unipolar world created new opportunities for convergence, leading both countries to reassess the relationship in light of shared democratic values and complementary interests.
Expansion into a comprehensive partnership
In the twenty-first century, India’s foreign policy has emphasized strategic autonomy while actively engaging major global powers to advance national development and regional stability. This approach aligned with growing U.S. recognition of India as a key partner in Asia and beyond.Under the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, bilateral relations deepened substantially, with Washington acknowledging India’s core interests and supporting its rise as a responsible global power. Landmark developments included the expansion of bilateral trade and investment, enhanced cooperation on counterterrorism and global security, and U.S. support for India’s greater role in global governance institutions. India’s admission into major multilateral export control regimes, along with U.S. backing for its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, further underscored growing trust and strategic alignment.
Since 2014, strategic cooperation has accelerated across defense, technology, and regional security. The United States designated India a "Major Defense Partner," reflecting a high degree of confidence and long-term commitment in defense collaboration. Cooperation has also expanded within multilateral and minilateral frameworks such as the Quad and the I2U2 Group, reflecting shared interests in a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific and in addressing global challenges through partnership.
History
Age of Exploration
The term "Indian", which has been used as an alternative for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for India, thought that he had arrived in the East Indies. This historical misnomer has persisted over the centuries, shaping cultural perceptions and narratives surrounding Native American identity.American Revolution, the East India Company, and early America context
Prior to the 1770s, Americans admired the expansion of the British Empire, feeling proud to be part of an expansion of British influence around the world. Some Indians were sent to the latter for slavery or indentured servitude. Today, descendants of such East Indian slaves may have a small percent of DNA from Asian ancestors but it likely falls below the detectable levels for today's DNA tests.The American Founding Fathers maintained awareness and admiration of affairs in Mysore in its resistance to London. The American Continental Congress, unable to send a full expedition to the subcontinent, instead encouraged its pirate navy to attack East India Company ships.
The flag of the East India Company is said to have inspired the Continental Union Flag of 1775, ultimately inspiring the current flag of the United States, as both flags were of the same design. Mysorean rockets were also used in the Battle of Baltimore, and are mentioned in "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States: And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air.
Under British Raj (1858–1947)
Religious connections
The relationships between India in the days of the British Raj and the United States were thick. Swami Vivekananda promoted Yoga and Vedanta in the United States at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, during the World's Fair in 1893. Mark Twain visited India in 1896 and described it in his travelogue Following the Equator with both revulsion and attraction before concluding that India was the only foreign land he dreamed about or longed to see again. Regarding India, Americans learned more from English writer Rudyard Kipling. Mahatma Gandhi had an important influence on the philosophy of non-violence promoted by American civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s.President Franklin D. Roosevelt
In the 1930s and early-1940s, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt voiced strong support to the Indian independence movement despite being allies with Britain. The first significant immigration from India before 1965 involved Sikh farmers going to California in the early-twentieth century.Case of Bhagat Singh Thind
United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind was a landmark legal case in the United States that reverberated through issues of immigration, citizenship, and race. In 1920, Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian Sikh man, applied for naturalization under the Naturalization Act of 1906, which permitted naturalization only for "free white persons" and "persons of African nativity or descent." Thind contended that his high-caste Indian heritage aligned with the scientific definition of "Caucasian," thereby qualifying him for citizenship."The case reached the Supreme Court of the United States in 1923. However, the Court unanimously ruled against Thind, asserting that while he might indeed meet the scientific classification of "Caucasian," the term "white person" in the naturalization laws was construed to apply exclusively to individuals of European descent. This pivotal decision had far-reaching implications, not only for Thind but for countless other South Asians aspiring for US citizenship. It set a legal precedent that explicitly excluded South Asians from being considered "white" for naturalization purposes, effectively prohibiting their path to citizenship.
During World War II
During World War II, 1941–1945, India became the main base for the American China Burma India Theater in the war against Japan. Tens of thousands of American servicemen arrived, bringing all sorts of advanced technology, and currency; they left in 1945. Serious tension erupted over American demands, led by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that India be given independence, a proposition Churchill vehemently rejected. For years, Roosevelt encouraged British disengagement from India. The American position was based on an opposition to Europeans having colonies and a practical concern for the outcome of the war, and the expectation of a large American role in a post-independence era. Churchill threatened to resign if Roosevelt continued to push his case, causing Roosevelt to back down. Meanwhile, India became the main American staging base to fly aid to China. During World War II, the Panagarh Airport in Bengal Province of India was used as a supply transport airfield from 1942 to 1945 by the United States Army Air Forces Tenth Air Force and as a repair and maintenance depot for B-24 Liberator heavy bombers by Air Technical Service Command.After Independence (1947–1997)
Nehru era
The United States under the Truman administration leaned towards favouring India in the late-1940s as a consequence of most US planners seeing India more valuable diplomatically than neighboring Pakistan. However, during the Cold War, Jawaharlal Nehru's policy of neutrality was cumbersome to many American observers. American Ambassador Henry F. Grady told the State Department in December 1947 that he had informed Nehru "that this is a question that cannot be straddled and that India should get on the democratic side immediately". In 1948, Nehru rejected American suggestions for resolving the Kashmir crisis via third party mediation.Nehru chose United States as the first country to visit abroad as Prime Minister. However, this 1949 tour of the United States was "an undiplomatic disaster" that left bad feelings on both sides. Nehru and his top aide V. K. Krishna Menon discussed whether India should "align with United States 'somewhat' and build up our economic and military strength." The Truman administration was quite favorable and indicated it would give Nehru anything he asked for. Nehru refused, and thereby forfeited the chance for a gift of one million tons of wheat. The American Secretary of State Dean Acheson recognized Nehru's potential world role but added that he was "one of the most difficult men with whom I have ever had to deal." The American visit had some benefits in that Nehru gained widespread understanding and support for his nation, and he himself gained a much deeper understanding of the American outlook.
India rejected the American advice that it should not recognize the Communist conquest of China, but it did back the US when it supported the 1950 United Nations resolution condemning North Korea's aggression in the Korean War. India tried to act as a mediator to help end the war, and served as a conduit for diplomatic messages between the US and China. Although no Indian troops took part in the war, India did send a Medical Corps of 346 army doctors to help the UN side. Meanwhile, poor harvests forced India to ask for American aid for its food security, which was given starting in 1950. In the first dozen years of Indian independence, the US provided $1.700,000,000 in aid; including $931,000,000 in food. The Soviet Union provided about half as much in monetary terms, however made much larger contributions in kind, taking the form of infrastructural aid; soft loans; technical knowledge transfer; economic planning and skills involved in the areas of steel mills; machine building; hydroelectric power; and other heavy industries, especially nuclear energy and space research. In 1961, the US pledged $1,000,000,000 in development loans, in addition to $1,300,000,000 of free food. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent John Sherman Cooper as ambassador in 1956–57, who got along very well with Nehru.
In terms of rhetoric, Nehru—as both prime minister and foreign minister —promoted a moralistic rhetoric attacking both the Soviet bloc and the US and its bloc. Nehru tried to build a nonaligned movement, paying special attention to the many new nations in the Third World released from European colonial status at this time. President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles themselves used moralistic rhetoric to attack the evils of Communism.
In 1959, Eisenhower became the first US president to visit India to strengthen the staggering ties between the two nations. He was so supportive that the New York Times remarked, "It did not seem to matter much whether Nehru had actually requested or been given a guarantee that the US would help India to meet further Chinese Communist aggression. What mattered was the obvious strengthening of Indian–American friendship to a point where no such guarantee was necessary."
During John F. Kennedy's presidency from 1961 to 1963, India was considered a strategic partner and counterweight to the rise of Communist China. Kennedy said:
Relations took a nosedive when India annexed the Portuguese colony of Goa in 1961. The Kennedy administration condemned the armed action of the Indian government and demanded that all Indian forces be unconditionally withdrawn from Goan soil, at the same time, cutting foreign aid appropriations to India by 25 percent. In response, Menon, now the Minister of Defence, lectured Kennedy on the importance of US-Soviet compromise and dismissed the admonishments of the Kennedy administration as "vestige of Western imperialism". The Kennedy administration openly supported India during the 1962 Sino-Indian war and considered the Chinese action as "blatant Chinese Communist aggression against India". The United States Air Force flew in arms, ammunition and clothing supplies to the Indian troops and the United States Navy sent the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier from the Pacific Ocean to India, though it was recalled before it reached the Bay of Bengal since the crisis had passed. Kennedy insisted that Washington defend India as it would any ally, saying, "We should defend India, and therefore we will defend India."