A strong and vibrant India is the need of the hour
India has not forgotten the harassment from China and Pakistan over border issues (apart from Kashmir). But with its economic growth, India has joined the ranks of the world’s leading nations, taking a place among the top five. With nuclear weapons, military strength, industrial progress and advanced digital technology, it has earned recognition as a major power that no one can deny.
It is nothing new for India to adjust its foreign policy to suit the changing circumstances. What is true now, however, is that diplomatic tactics themselves have changed as situations have become complex. In the early days after independence, under the philosophical leadership of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru—who had a deep understanding of global conditions—India adopted a stance of equidistance from major powers that became known as the Non-Aligned Policy. That approach earned India a reputation as a mediator.
Although economically backward, India’s launch of five-year plans created pathways for development, and great powers like the United States and USSR began to take notice. China, which was only then emerging on the Asian stage, initially looked to India for cooperation.
Mao Zedong (Mao) fashioned Marxism-Leninism into a distinctly Chinese form and proclaimed it as the ideology for the future. What followed next is history. While the United States and USSR pressed forward, China—though somewhat behind in power—did not let that prevent its progress. European countries, after the two World Wars, formed systems like NATO and became allied with the United States, while several Arab states and some smaller nations leaned toward Soviet Russia. With the India–China border disputes, India—formerly seen as morally prominent—gradually began to lose its international foothold.
Kashmir became a problem when Pakistan and India, acting thoughtlessly, took it to the UN — it turned into a tug-of-war between the two countries. After Nehru’s influence waned, Indira Gandhi played a leading role in Bangladesh’s independence; although the world seemed to hail her, she lost political footing after a court decision and declared an Emergency to retain power. Meanwhile, since the 1950s the political developments in Israel-Palestine, Iran, Iraq and Egypt have been exploited by major powers for their own gain: using the UN as a silent witness, the great powers — particularly Soviet Russia and the United States — long played other countries against each other to expand their influence. The Soviet Union eventually disintegrated and re-emerged as Russia, which has picked fights amid disputes over oil with the breakaway Ukraine. Israel grew into a powerful state, struck at Palestine, and became the source of a persistent, intractable conflict.
Looking at recent history, even though the Congress party ruled India off and on, it weakened. Coalition governments arose across the country. The BJP, by allying with various smaller regional parties, has been governing India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi for three successive terms and achieved stability. Even when it did not always follow the same policies, it gradually secured the trappings a great power needs without losing legitimacy. There were hiccups along the way.
At times it seemed to move slightly away from Russia and appear closer to the United States. Pakistan and China, which until recently were seen as friendly to each other, have drifted apart to some extent, and Pakistan now seems willing to work with an India that has become almost equally influential. The world has been trying to realign itself, much like the earlier America–Soviet–Russia leadership dynamics influenced other nations. China’s expansionist instincts are well known — it acts whenever it sees fit.
India has not forgotten the harassment from China and Pakistan over border issues (apart from Kashmir). But with its economic growth, India has joined the ranks of the world’s leading nations, taking a place among the top five. With nuclear weapons, military strength, industrial progress and advanced digital technology, it has earned recognition as a major power that no one can deny.
Modi has emerged as a quiet political leader, while the American president is astonishing the world with spectacle-like displays of power — Modi is cozying up to Donald Trump, who is plunging his own country’s people into confusion. The world now finds itself transformed by these unpredictable modern political dynamics. All eyes are on economic resources.
Trump, whose political grip is weakening, is trying to exploit the Russia–Ukraine and Israel–Palestine conflicts to his advantage, treating them as an opportunity to secure oil wealth and other gains. By using tariffs as a Trump card, he is attempting to create economic turmoil worldwide that disrupts import-export trade. Whether Russia, China, India and other countries can collectively resist these moves — and whether the self-interested nations of the world will quickly come together to cooperate — remains doubtful. The UN, as ever, remains helpless.
If the world operates this way, what course should India choose for its security and development? How far should it trust the rising China and move forward? Even though Pakistan has weakened, what should India do if a major power—whether the United States or China—starts to envelop India politically by pouring in aid, economic resources, and military materiel like water under a sluice? Russia now seems weaker; will it be able to help India as it did before? How should India deal, in moral, political, and economic terms, with neighboring countries such as Afghanistan under resurgent Taliban influence, and nearby states like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal? Either way, India must preserve its influence, civilization, and defense system, and play a leading role in the global order while promoting a message of peace.
(The writer is a retired IPS officer, who has served as an Additional DGP of Andhra Pradesh)