Intellectual cover-fire

India's foreign policy has once again come under critical American scrutiny with Ashley Tellis’ article, “India’s Great Power Delusions,” published recently in the Foreign Affairs journal.

- MIHIR BHOLEY

Tellis, a leading American strategic analyst on South Asia, not only reflects the American mindset but also directly questions India’s vision of self-reliance and a multipolar world. He contends that India lacks the capacity to become a true global power and should secure its future under America’s shadow.

Thus, Tellis writes: “India’s ambitions far exceed its capabilities, and its leaders have not yet come to terms with the limits of their country’s power. India’s quest for strategic autonomy is, in effect, a search for an international order that does not exist and is unlikely ever to materialise.” But can 21st-century India so easily accept the dominance theory of any hegemonic power? This question becomes even more pertinent post India’s bold military action “Operation Sindoor” against jihadi Pakistan which emphatically underscored its strategic autonomy ~ while the same United States, which calls India a strategic partner, renews its courtship with the army chief of an unstable, radicalised Pakistan.

For the transaction-loving Trump, it may be a smart move, but such an act has only reaffirmed the belief of the US being an unreliable partner. Tellis’ article gives intellectual cover fire to American hegemonic thinking, seeking to prove that India’s multipolar worldview, as repeatedly articulated by External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, is impractical. The article repeatedly emphasises India’s social, economic, and technological challenges as barriers to its global ambitions. However, this criticism would have been more balanced had Tellis also acknowledged the significant role played by Indian Americans in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign.