India joins the clubsNARENDRA MODI is a masterful salesman. On his frequent foreign tours the Indian prime minister touts his brand not only in words but physically. The beatific smile, the warm hugs and the trademark folkloric dress project the reassuring humility of a big but benign country. Yet behind the soft-focus India that Mr Modi personifies, the contours of a harder-edged regional power are emerging under his leadership.
For many Indians, it is about time. Traditional Indian diplomacy has been “non-aligned”. In practice this has often meant disengagement from the wider world and skittish caution closer to home. Such has been the case in India’s dealings with China: its generous economic and military aid to Pakistan, India’s eternal rival, and its energetic efforts to prise smaller neighbours such as Nepal and Sri Lanka from India’s orbit have until recently resulted in little more than head-scratching in the Indian capital, Delhi. C. Raja Mohan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank, says there has been a shift in Indian diplomatic thinking: “Now the word is: ‘We will push...Continue reading
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