DILEMMAS OF INDIA’S ASPIRATIONS TO BECOME A BIG POWER

 

  • India as a superpower

o Some contend that India should strive to become a big power and exert its expanding influence abroad

Others contend that before attempting to change the globe, India should concentrate on lifting millions of its citizens out of poverty, enhancing its administration, and promoting internal harmony.

 

GSPREP ON THE ISSUE

India’s difficulties

  • In 1991, India was a weak, impoverished, and severely afflicted nation with a nominal GDP of $270 billion and a foreign exchange reserve of $8 (five zero eight) billion.
  • Of the 846 million people, around half were considered to be poor.
  • Despite attempts to allay worries about a nuclear conflict

A potential conflict between Pakistan and India loomed.

Kashmir’s level of violence had reached a climax.

  • The breakup of India’s dependable ally, the Soviet Union, and the tense relationship with the United States.

 

Right now (in 2023):

  • India now has a foreign exchange reserve of almost $600 billion.
  • India is currently not anxious about a war with Pakistan.

However, China has replaced them, and there is a broad optimism regarding foreign policy.

  • The changes made in response to the economic crisis of 1991 increased GDP growth and significantly decreased poverty.
  • India has the fifth-largest economy in the world, and its nominal GDP may soon reach $4 trillion.
  • Its military is among the biggest in the world and contains more than 100 nuclear weapons.
  • The United States is currently one of India’s closest allies, and India enjoys close ties with many other major nations.
  • India is one of the key swing nations in the modern international order.

o is well-placed and frequently plays both sides with enthusiasm.

  • India’s place in global politics has received new attention as a result of the great power dynamics surrounding the Ukraine war.
  • The United States and the wealthy West want India to support them.
  • There are credible suggestions that India should act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict.

In times of world crisis, India speaks the language of negotiation.

  • India serves as a link between the north and south as well as the east and west, suggesting that it is a significant ‘pole’ in international affairs.
  • India’s national power has significantly grown, making it a force with the potential and motivation to shape the system.

 

Issues facing India

  • In spite of being the fifth-largest economy in the world, Bangladesh’s GDP per capita in 2021 was higher than India’s at $2,227.

o Bangladesh’s military is only the 40th-largest in the world.

o A nation’s citizens’ well-being is not equated with its GDP or military prowess.

  • Significant governance and infrastructure problems plague India.

o The ease of conducting business may have increased, but it is still difficult to launch a business without accepting a bribe.

  • There are significant regional, caste, ethnic, and religious divisions.
  • India’s domestic issues would continue to divert its political leaders’ attention from addressing world issues.
  • Poverty and the welfare of millions of people living in poverty: A task that is certain to divert attention from important external engagements.
  • Career bureaucrats who run India typically follow precedents and refrain from making even the slightest bit of a risky move.

Foreign policy typically runs on autopilot in the absence of political will.

  • Politicians are unable to allocate sufficient funds for foreign policy goals due to a weak domestic economy.
  • The Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs (2022-23) noted that “despite an increase in the Government of India’s overall budget allocation, the allocation made to MEA in percentage terms has witnessed a downward turn during the last four years.”

o In addition, the committee stated that we “do not find such allocation in consonance with the country’s rising aspirations and growing global stature.”

 

Way ahead

  • Not only will India’s future strength alter the course of the world in significant ways, but it will also unquestionably affect the fate of its people.
  • Despite the fact that India’s domestic shortcomings will continue to restrain its capacity to have an impact on the global order commensurate with its size and ambition.

o Refusing to participate and influence it would be a tactical error.

  • If you don’t set the rules, you follow them: India has no choice but to form the rules of the international system in order to achieve its foreign policy goals.

o It significantly affects the nation’s economic development, security situation, and geopolitical and economic interests.

  • Regardless of the issue at hand—climate change, global trade, debt restructuring, or non-proliferation—India cannot afford to let others set the rules and uphold them.

 

PRACTISE

Due to India’s newly discovered role in the forming global order, the long-standing perception of it as the leader of the oppressed and marginalised countries has vanished.