Framing India's non-alignment policy in an increasingly polarized world: Observations from the popular media outlets of India

Abstract: The media has considerable power in informing, shaping, or skewing foreign policy debates through salience and framing. While it is quite challenging to make accurate predictions about the future of India’s non-alignment policy, it is feasible to examine perspectives and concerns about India’s policy of non-alignment in the increasingly polarized world stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war. Thus, by carrying out qualitative content analysis of the Indian media framing, this study examines how the popular media outlets of India framed India’s policy of non-alignment in the face of the growing military and political instability in the world stemming from the Russian Federation’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After carrying out the qualitative content analysis of the editorial and opinion articles (retrieved from The Times of India, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, The Economic Times and The Daily Pioneer), it is concluded that the authors generally discuss the pragmatic ways of dealing with the potential implications of the Russia-Ukraine war for India as the way Ukraine war ends is considered crucial for the country’s foreign and security policy decisions regarding the policy of non-alignment.