Published with license by Koninklijke Brill bv | doi:10.1163/1871191X- bja10218 © Ankit Kawade, 2025 | ISSN: 1871-1901(print) 1871-191X (online) The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 20 (2025) 432–452 brill.com/hjd Pleas to the Foreigner Caste, Race, Internationalism, and Diplomacy in Ambedkar’s Political Thought Ankit Kawade | orcid: 0009-0009-2020-6800 Ph.D. Student, Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA akawade1@jh.edu Received 3 January 2024 | Accepted 31 July 2025 | Published online 17 September 2025 Summary This paper attempts to outline some theoretical motifs from B.R. Ambedkar’s political thought for the purposes of throwing some critical light on the broader framework of methodological nationalism that defines colonial and postcolonial Indian diplomacy. It examines Ambedkar’s comparative analysis of caste and race, his engagement with anti-racist movements and thought, and his non-national internationalism and dip- lomacy. It argues that Ambedkar’s political thought challenges traditional diplomatic frameworks by underlining how the Indian nation-state’s diplomatic concerns are historically inflected by the ideology of Brahmanism. A critical focus derived from Ambedkar’s political thought provides for a crucial – if not foundational – theoretical framework for interrogating the category of Brahmanism or casteism as inflecting the international engagements of India’s diplomatic elites. Keywords caste – race – international relations – Indian foreign policy – Brahmanism – nation- alism – internationalism – diplomacy – Ambedkar