What Drives Indian Foreign Policy?

Today’s imperatives of nationalism and humanism are the fulcrum of Modi’s vision

- M J Akbar

Foreign policy is the international expression of a nation’s most urgent aspirations. Aspiration is dynamic, evolving with a country’s sense of itself and its place in the world. In the first half of the 20th century, Indians abandoned servitude, found a leader in Mahatma Gandhi who gave voice to this new spirit, and by winning freedom in 1947 ended Europe’s colonial project. Gandhi and India shifted the most powerful tide in history.

In the second half of the century, India met and defeated external forces hell-bent on sabotaging the country’s unity, but faltered on the economic front, thanks to the drag of pseudosocialism. The 21st century is already a different place. India has corrected its economic compass, consolidated its economic and political strength, and is ready to claim a legitimate place in the forefront of the 21st century.

Foreign policy is, of necessity, a crucial part of the route map to this new horizon. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has a  leader ready to shape this transformation and lay the foundations of New India’s rising role in world affairs. At the heart of Modi’s foreign policy is a humanitarian vision inspired by a fundamental tenet of Indian philosophy, that the world is one family. This conviction fits perfectly with the republican ethos of our times.

Empires have been replaced by nation states, inspired by the nationalism of people rather than of elites. Nationalism and humanism are thereby two sides of the same republican coin, and they constitute the fulcrum of Modi’s vision. Nations are no longer “big” or “small”; they are sovereign and equal, with the same rights and, indeed, the same obligations.