Swapna Kona Nayudu

Swapna Kona Nayudu, historian at Nanyang Technological University and author of The Nehru Years, explores Nehruvian non‑alignment. She traces its intellectual roots and contrasts it with neutrality. She examines India's diplomatic mediation in Korea, Suez, Hungary, and the Congo. The conversation highlights how non‑alignment shifted from critique to a practiced, securitized state project.

Swapna Kona Nayudu, an academic of international history and Indian foreign policy, discusses Nehru-era non-alignment. She explores its intellectual roots in Tagore and Gandhi. She traces India’s diplomatic interventions in Korea, Suez, Hungary, and the Congo. She examines non-alignment as neutrality plus mediation and its limits in practice.