By Manoj Kumar Mishra
PM Narendra Modi’s efforts to project India as a Viswa-Guru by invoking India’s historical and spiritual resources, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, and practices of Yoga have gained traction.
India’s rise to great power status and its desire for a bigger role beyond the South Asian region has not only been subject to rigorous academic scrutiny and debate, but it has also fueled rhetoric among political leaders and scholars alike. Retaliating to the Pahalgam massacre of 26 tourists on April 22, 2025, India’s successful carrying out of 'Operation Sindoor' — precision attacks on
terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir — with optimum damage to terrorist infrastructure and lives alongside maximum care not to do damage to any Pakistani civilian infrastructure and civilian lives, has been able to project India as a power with modern precision technology, which can teach hard lessons to its enemies on violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s success in enhancing the image of India in the eyes of international community in different international platforms, invoking New Delhi’s increasing capabilities as one of the largest investor-friendly markets, as one of the countries bent on strengthening its military preparedness and more as a country that seeks to preserve its ancient cultural resources through ideas such as Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and practices such as Yoga in its bid to turn itself into a Viswa-Guru has provided dynamism to the country’s foreign policy.
Favorable demographic dividend
Contributing to the debate and rhetoric of India’s rise to global power status is the fact that the country enjoys an unprecedented demographic dividend, not only by housing the World’s largest population by surpassing that of China, the youngest section of people outnumbers other categories of people. Considering the decaying and ageing population in the West and among other developed countries, India promises a robust contribution of human capital to the global economy in the long-term. It is projected that the economic outputs of the country can, in this way, surpass other economies in the foreseeable future.
The country’s ability to derive economic and military power out of the bulge in population has been central to the ways of transforming the country as a power to be reckoned with. India has been modernizing its defense forces by importing updated technology and equipment and it has also developed and upgraded its indigenous capabilities to generate defense resources. Under Modi, India seems poised to establish a robust military-industrial complex.
Abilities to defend its interests amid great power politics
India has been able to defend its key strategic interests by maintaining strategic autonomy even amid the wars involving great power politics. India’s stance on cases like the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israeli-Hamas war substantiates this. It has not sided with the West and chose a course of neutrality in the war in Ukraine. It neither condemned nor did it blame Russia for the war. India’s abstention from all UN resolutions pertaining to Ukraine, demanding a Russian withdrawal or condemning the war, as well as relating to Moscow’s annexation of Ukrainian territories since March 2022, exemplifies this.
India’s strategic interests in the Ukrainian case are multifaceted. First, India cannot afford to put its weight behind the Western move to isolate Russia that has palpably pushed Moscow even closer to China which is poised to undercut New Delhi’s interest. Second, a multipolar world order in which India sees its interests best served can only be realized with the preservation of Russia’s position as a great power.
Despite diversification of defense imports and India’s ever-growing strategic partnership with the US, the country still depends on Russia for essential components of several advanced weapons systems, including its fighter aircraft, cruise missiles, submarines, and land warfare platforms. In a similar vein, as a victim of terrorism, as well as keeping in view the Israeli support in the critical areas of defense, India has supported the Israeli action against Hamas.
Favourable strategic location
India understands how its geostrategic location is vital to the American pivot to Asia. The US’s ‘Containment of China’ strategy through QUAD is largely contingent on India’s critical support. Its vital location has allowed it breathing space amid the polarized stance of the West on the one hand and Russia on the other over the Ukrainian war.
From Russia, India could import natural resources such as oil at subsidized prices despite its neutrality in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and diplomatic pressure from the West on India to isolate Russia. India could secure a waiver from the US for importing the S-400 missile from Russia. India is importing essential defense equipment as well as deftly maintaining its ties
to Russia, even while it has entered into a strategic partnership with the US to balance China.
With the US, India has successfully forged ties in the areas of critical defense technology, Artificial Intelligence, cyber technology, and telecommunication, whereas Russia has inched closer towards China and Pakistan during the post-Cold War era, engendering concerns in New Delhi. In this light, India understands that it cannot afford to isolate Russia further.
Multi-alignment
India understands that a country witnesses shifting of its friends and enemies with the passage of time, but its geography cannot be altered. Hence, it has sought to secure its vital security interests in the Indo-Pacific and Himalayan region by entering deeply into the strategic ambit of the US, but not by throwing its full weight behind the containment of China strategy.
In this light, India has carefully crafted its Indo-Pacific policy and participation in QUAD so as to strengthen maritime security and maintain a free and open region without explicitly endorsing a containment strategy aimed at China. It has been able to defend its national interest through a policy of multi-alignment. India is managing the Chinese threat with the US assistance by strengthening the QUAD without sacrificing the age-old strategic relationship with and military support from Russia.
On the other side, India’s security concerns about China have not prevented it from cooperating with China in its continued efforts to collectively work towards representing and addressing the development concerns of the Global South through multilateral forums such as BRICS and the SCO. India is not only one of the largest trading partners of China, but it has also been attending trilateral meetings with both China and Russia. It has left no stone unturned to strengthen the multilateral forum – BRICS, including member-states — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — in order to represent the interests of the Global South. India has also been at the forefront of demanding reforms of the global institutions such as the UN Security Council and International Financial Institutions, including the World Bank and the IMF, keeping the changing power
realities and notions of security which favor the global south in view.
Soft power
Prime Minister Modi’s efforts to project India as a Viswa-Guru by invoking India’s historical and spiritual resources, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, and practices of Yoga have gained traction. He has been able to influence leaders of many countries through his oratory skills and yogic lifestyle. India is also willing to play a greater role in leading the Global South. This willingness of the country to lead the Global South amid the dysfunctionality of the Non-Aligned Movement has restored its lost soft power resources, which has been evidenced during India’s presidency in the G-20 and SCO groupings in 2022 and 2023.
(The writer is a senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, SVM Autonomous College, in Odisha, India.)
The views expressed are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times
