West must stop trying to pull India into the liberal democracy camp

[CaptainMaverick]

West must stop trying to pull India into the liberal democracy camp

U.S. and allies would be better served trying to prevent New Delhi siding with China

 

 

India is the world's most populated and established democracy and participates in the Quad, a strategic security dialogue with Australia, Japan and the U.S. In these meetings, India appears to stand with the West and against authoritarian China. Unsurprisingly, some optimists even see the Quad's potential to become the cornerstone of an Indo-Pacific NATO.

Look more closely, however, and India is not a U.S. ally and is the weakest leg of the Quad. The U.S. has separate security alliances with Australia and Japan, forming a quasi-alliance among the three. More specifically, the Quad is not a military alliance, but merely a defense-diplomatic alignment for promoting practical policy coordination in various non-traditional security areas, as well as joint naval exercises, with Exercise Malabar in 2007 serving as an early precedent. Obviously, India does not share sufficiently strong military-security interests for an alliance with the other three, but only democratic creeds and institutions.

But India has never been willing to form an alliance or quasi-alliance with the U.S., Japan, and/or Australia. Instead, along with its attendance at Quad summits and an outreach session of the 2023 G7 Summit, India also has been committed to memberships of the BRICS (and its New Development Bank), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Also, it has to be remembered that India has never sided with the West in criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and imposing economic sanctions on the country.

Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong, center right, speaks as India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, left, Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, center left, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken listen during a joint press conference Tokyo on July 29.   © Reuters

Evidently, India is sticking to its longtime non-aligned policy line, consistently taking opportunities to maximize its freedom in external policy and enhance its national interests.

More specifically, India not only rejects a Chinese regional hegemony but also pursues a transformation from the U.S.-led West's hegemony in world politics to a multipolar world.

From New Delhi's perspective, therefore, there is no contradiction, at least in principle, to concurrently align itself with the U.S. and its allies to soft-balance against China, and with the BRICS and major Global South countries to transform the existing international economic order to its advantage. By doing so, New Delhi aims to turn the international distribution of power to its favor through a shift toward a multipolar world, while safeguarding adequate national security.

Evidently, contrary to the naive creedal approach, "democracy" cannot be a magic word that allows Western liberal democracies to pull India into its camp.

Due to Imperial Britain's colonial legacy, India enjoys built-in democratic political institutions at both federal and state levels, especially regular free and secret ballots. Yet in reality, today's India is in thrall to rising Hindu nationalism, the dearth of religious freedom, and the persistent caste system that ironically maintains socio-political stability through historically fixed inequality.

Indian understandings on "democracy" tilt toward political institutions but lack adequate societal practice of individual liberties, which are essential for liberal democracy. This is natural because, due to the British colonial legacy, the English language has happened to be the common technical communication tool in the extraordinary multi-lingual subcontinent -- this despite Indians not sharing Western historical, politico-cultural backgrounds and the original semantics.

Overall, "democratic" India is located in between in the continuum of liberal democracy and authoritarianism, but a little closer to the former. This effectively means the current mainstream policy discourse about "democratic" India has already turned out to be flawed and ineffective propaganda. India is not a liberal democracy and is not willing to be one. Nor does it have the potential to be one, at least in the foreseeable future.

Hence, the U.S.-led West should not expect to pull India into the camp of liberal democracy. Instead, it has to prevent India from siding with China. This is of paramount importance now India seems to have a casting vote in shaping the evolving world order.

 

 

 

[CaptainMaverick]

1 minute ago, CaptainMaverick said:

West must stop trying to pull India into the liberal democracy camp

U.S. and allies would be better served trying to prevent New Delhi siding with China

 

 

India is the world's most populated and established democracy and participates in the Quad, a strategic security dialogue with Australia, Japan and the U.S. In these meetings, India appears to stand with the West and against authoritarian China. Unsurprisingly, some optimists even see the Quad's potential to become the cornerstone of an Indo-Pacific NATO.

Look more closely, however, and India is not a U.S. ally and is the weakest leg of the Quad. The U.S. has separate security alliances with Australia and Japan, forming a quasi-alliance among the three. More specifically, the Quad is not a military alliance, but merely a defense-diplomatic alignment for promoting practical policy coordination in various non-traditional security areas, as well as joint naval exercises, with Exercise Malabar in 2007 serving as an early precedent. Obviously, India does not share sufficiently strong military-security interests for an alliance with the other three, but only democratic creeds and institutions.

But India has never been willing to form an alliance or quasi-alliance with the U.S., Japan, and/or Australia. Instead, along with its attendance at Quad summits and an outreach session of the 2023 G7 Summit, India also has been committed to memberships of the BRICS (and its New Development Bank), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Also, it has to be remembered that India has never sided with the West in criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and imposing economic sanctions on the country.

Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong, center right, speaks as India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, left, Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, center left, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken listen during a joint press conference Tokyo on July 29.   © Reuters

Evidently, India is sticking to its longtime non-aligned policy line, consistently taking opportunities to maximize its freedom in external policy and enhance its national interests.

More specifically, India not only rejects a Chinese regional hegemony but also pursues a transformation from the U.S.-led West's hegemony in world politics to a multipolar world.

From New Delhi's perspective, therefore, there is no contradiction, at least in principle, to concurrently align itself with the U.S. and its allies to soft-balance against China, and with the BRICS and major Global South countries to transform the existing international economic order to its advantage. By doing so, New Delhi aims to turn the international distribution of power to its favor through a shift toward a multipolar world, while safeguarding adequate national security.

Evidently, contrary to the naive creedal approach, "democracy" cannot be a magic word that allows Western liberal democracies to pull India into its camp.

Due to Imperial Britain's colonial legacy, India enjoys built-in democratic political institutions at both federal and state levels, especially regular free and secret ballots. Yet in reality, today's India is in thrall to rising Hindu nationalism, the dearth of religious freedom, and the persistent caste system that ironically maintains socio-political stability through historically fixed inequality.

Indian understandings on "democracy" tilt toward political institutions but lack adequate societal practice of individual liberties, which are essential for liberal democracy. This is natural because, due to the British colonial legacy, the English language has happened to be the common technical communication tool in the extraordinary multi-lingual subcontinent -- this despite Indians not sharing Western historical, politico-cultural backgrounds and the original semantics.

Overall, "democratic" India is located in between in the continuum of liberal democracy and authoritarianism, but a little closer to the former. This effectively means the current mainstream policy discourse about "democratic" India has already turned out to be flawed and ineffective propaganda. India is not a liberal democracy and is not willing to be one. Nor does it have the potential to be one, at least in the foreseeable future.

Hence, the U.S.-led West should not expect to pull India into the camp of liberal democracy. Instead, it has to prevent India from siding with China. This is of paramount importance now India seems to have a casting vote in shaping the evolving world order.

 

 

 

Oppressor & the oppressed cannot have same forms of democracy! 

[Rescuer7]

2 minutes ago, CaptainMaverick said:

Oppressor & the oppressed cannot have same forms of democracy! 

JaiChina

[Teluguredu]

India should ideally align with China and form an asian power center along with Japan,Russia and the M.E to counter the west. 

 

But india is a failed country ,they won't go hard on anyone as one wrong step could expose the entire country.