Looking at the Indian scenario, what type of security has been given priority in India, traditional or non-traditional?

India has faced traditional (military) and non-traditional threats to its security that have emerged from within as well as outside its borders. Its security strategy has four broad components : 

1. To strengthen its military capabilities because: 

(a) India has been involved in a conflict with its neighbors as Pakistan in 1947-48,1965,1971 and 1999 and China in 1962. 

(b) In the South Asian Region, India is surrounded by nuclear-armed countries. Hence India’s decision to conduct the nuclear test in 1998 was justified to safeguard national security. 

(c) India first tested a nuclear device in 1974. 

2. To strengthen international norms and international institutions: 

(a) India’s first Prime Minister J.L. Nehru supported Asian solidarity, disarmament, decolonization and the UN as a forum to settle down the international conflict. 

(b) India took initiatives to bring about a universal and non- discriminatory non-proliferation regime to enjoy some rights and obligations with respect to weapons of mass destruction. 

(c) It used non-alignment to help to carve out an area of peace outside the blocs. 

(d) India signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 to be a part of a roadmap for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases to check global warming. 

3. To meet security challenges within the country: 

(a) Several militant groups from areas such as Nagaland, Mizoram, Punjab, Kashmir have sought to break away from India. 

(b) India makes efforts to preserve national unity by adopting a democratic political system by providing freedom of speech and expression along with the right to vote. 

4. To develop its economy: 

(a) India develops the way to lift a vast mass of citizens out of poverty, misery and huge economic inequalities. 

(b) A democratically elected government is supposed to combine economic growth with human development without any demarcation between the rich and the poor.