The United Nations at 80: India’s journey and the urgent call for reform

Siddharth Roy 

(siddharth001.roy@gmail.com)

Eighty years ago, on 24 October 1945, the world, battered and bleeding from the ravages of two world wars, came together to build a fragile dream, a dream of peace, cooperation, and collective security. The United Nations was born not out of triumph but of tragedy, not out of conquest but of conscience. As the UN turns 80, it is a moment to celebrate what it has achieved but also to confront with honesty what it has failed to become. For India, which joined the UN just months after independence, the story has been one of faith, frustration, and an undiminished hope that multilateralism can still serve humanity in an age of fractured geopolitics.

From the very beginning, India’s engagement with the United Nations was rooted in conviction, not convenience. In 1945, even before achieving independence, India was among the founding members of the UN. In the early decades, New Delhi emerged as a moral voice, championing decolonisation, racial equality, and disarmament. India stood firmly for the rights of newly independent nations in Africa and Asia, advocating that the world body must be more than a forum for the powerful. When the winds of the Cold War divided the world into camps, India’s voice carried a rare moral clarity. It refused to become a pawn in ideological battles, instead leading the Non-Aligned Movement, an idea that found resonance precisely because it sought to keep the United Nations as the centrepiece of global cooperation, not confrontation.

India’s faith in the UN system, however, has not been blind. It has often been tempered by disillusionment. The most painful example remains the question of Jammu and Kashmir, first brought before the United Nations in 1948. What began as a plea for peace turned into a long geopolitical tussle, often manipulated by great-power politics. Over the decades, India has seen how the Security Council, meant to be the guarantor of peace, has sometimes been paralysed by the very powers entrusted to protect it. The selective morality of global governance, where interventions are dictated not by principle but by interest, has been a constant source of Indian disappointment.

Yet, India has not turned its back on the UN. Instead, it has sought to strengthen it through constructive action. As one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping missions, India has sent over 250,000 soldiers to serve under the blue flag, more than any other country. Indian troops have patrolled the Congo, Sudan, Lebanon, and countless other conflict zones, often under the harshest conditions, earning respect for professionalism and sacrifice. This is not mere symbolism; it reflects India’s belief that the UN, despite its flaws, remains indispensable to the idea of a rules-based international order.

Over the decades, India’s relationship with the UN has evolved from idealism to realism, from moral suasion to strategic assertion. The 21st century has seen India emerge as a major economic and political power, representing one-sixth of humanity. Yet, it remains outside the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, a body that continues to reflect the power realities of 1945, not 2025. When the UN was founded, there were 51 member states; today, there are 193. But the core structure of the Security Council has barely changed. The veto-wielding five, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China, still decide the fate of the world, often through the prism of their national interests.

India’s demand for reform is not just about prestige; it is about fairness and functionality. The world of 2025 is multipolar, complex, and interconnected. Climate change, cyber warfare, pandemics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence are challenges that no single nation can confront alone. A reformed UN Security Council, expanded to include India, Japan, Germany, Brazil, and greater representation from Africa, is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Without such inclusiveness, the UN risks fading into irrelevance, becoming a relic of a bygone order rather than a driver of the future.

The moral case for India’s inclusion is undeniable. India is the world’s largest democracy, a responsible nuclear power, a consistent voice for peace, and a leading contributor to sustainable development. It has never waged a war of aggression nor violated international law. Its foreign policy, rooted in the ancient ideal of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which means the world is one family, aligns perfectly with the UN’s founding spirit. When India says the United Nations must reform, it is not demanding privilege; it is demanding balance. It seeks a system where power aligns with responsibility and representation with reality.

But reform cannot stop at the Security Council. The broader UN system, i.e., from the General Assembly to specialised agencies like the WHO, WTO, and UNESCO, must become more accountable, transparent, and effective. Bureaucratic inertia and political interference often dilute the impact of the UN’s noble missions. The pandemic exposed these weaknesses starkly: when the world needed coordinated action, institutions faltered under pressure. The lesson is clear, and that is legitimacy without effectiveness is hollow, and effectiveness without inclusiveness is unsustainable.

India, for its part, has shown what responsible multilateralism can look like. Through initiatives like the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, New Delhi has infused the global discourse with innovation and inclusivity. India’s presidency of the G20 in 2023 demonstrated that leadership can be both principled and pragmatic, focused on the Global South, on digital public goods, and on development that leaves no one behind. These are precisely the values the United Nations must rediscover if it wishes to remain relevant in the 21st century. As the UN enters its ninth decade, the world stands at another crossroads. Wars rage, inequalities deepen, and trust in institutions is eroding. Yet, the answer cannot be to abandon the UN. For all its imperfections, it remains the only universal platform humanity has, a place where every nation, big or small, has a voice. What it needs is renewal of purpose, of structure, and of spirit.

Eighty years on, the world must remember why the United Nations was created, i.e., to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to promote human dignity. For India, that vision still holds power. As one of our former prime ministers once said, “Peace is not something you wish for; it is something you make, something you do, something you are.” The UN at 80 must rediscover that truth. And in doing so, it must finally give India and the developing world their rightful place at the global table.