Indo-US relationship: In search of Allies
- In Foreign Policy
- 09:48 AM, Sep 27, 2021
- Avatans Kumar
It was a rainy Wednesday (September 22, 2021) in Washington, DC, when Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi’s Air India One touched down at the Joint Base Andrews, a US military establishment outside Washington DC. The heavy rain did not dampen the spirit of the strong contingent of the diaspora members who had gathered to welcome PM Modi.
Ever since Modi took over the reins of the government of India, the dynamics of Indian PM’s foreign visits have changed significantly. The Air India One looks much different without the press corps wining on dining on public money. PM Modi does not restrict his international engagements to a few formal handshakes with foreign dignitaries. It also does not stop at meeting a few prominent elite Indians in events organized in the sleepy confines of Indian embassies.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, pursued an “active dissociation” policy from the Indian diaspora, writes Sreeram Chaulia, in his book Modi Doctrine: The Foreign Policy of India’s Prime Minister. Previous governments viewed people of the Indian diaspora scattered all around the globe with the suspicion that they had “betrayed” the country. Chaulia quotes Nehru making the following comment in the Lok Sabha in 1957: “If they adopt the nationality of that country, we have no concern with them. Sentimental concern there is, but politically they cease to be Indian national.”
By contrast, the engagement with the Indian diaspora has acquired the center stage of Modi’s international policy. Modi engages with the diaspora with all pomp and shows, with presidential campaign-style ostentatious rallies in US megacities. Modi’s penchant for leveraging the Indian diaspora in transforming India into a cultural, political, and economic powerhouse is remarkable. Modi has made his effort to harness the energy and assets of the Indian diaspora a part of his governance policy mantra. A 60,000 strong crowd at the NRG Stadium at Howdy Modi! rally in Houston, Texas, in 2019 was a testament to that spirit.
While much of the fanfare was lacking from Modi’s US visit this time due to the pandemic, a workaholic Modi was running a tight schedule, as usual, meeting foreign dignitaries, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. However, many uncertainties remain in the Indo-US relationship, with additional headaches on India’s frontiers, the Quad, and the newly formed alliance AUKUS.
The history of the Indo-US relationship is a complicated one. When PM Modi spoke of overcoming “the hesitations of history” at the joint session of the US Congress in 2016, he was acutely aware of, in Ambassador Rich Verma’s words, “the periods of alignment, disinterest, frustration, and convergence” (Overcoming the Hesitations of History: An Analysis of U.S.-India Ties, Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University, 2020).
The history of the Indo-US relationship goes as far back as 1792, when the US established its consulate in Kolkata. Unlike Europe, which sent immigrants and missionaries in droves to colonize and settle the newly discovered land, “the first wave of Indian immigrants, mainly Punjabis, landed in Northern California in the early 1900s to work in the vast and growing agricultural and railway sectors” (Verma, 2020).
However, it wasn’t until the Clinton years that the Indo-US relationship started moving positively. President Clinton initiated the process of “de-linking India and Pakistan policy” (Verma, 2020). Presidents Bush, Obama, and largely transactional Trump kept that spirit going from the American side.
From the Indian side, PMs Manmohan Singh, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and now Narendra Modi have put significant resources and their personal capital on the line in enriching this relationship. However, despite the well-meaning efforts of leaders from both countries, the result has been mostly underwhelming. “Relations have mostly been cordial, with a slight upward trajectory,” writes Verma, “but the United States does not count India as one of its closest friends and partners, and few would assert that we have become allies, natural or otherwise.”
Modi’s US visit comes in the backdrop of the perceived American retreat from the world stage. How accurate this perception is, remains the subject of an intense debate among analysts.
However, the glaring failures of the American involvement in Afghanistan’s ‘nation-building’ and the mishandling of the troop withdrawal by the Biden-Harris administration has not helped dissolve that perception.
Modi’s US visit comes at a time when the American leadership seems the most vulnerable politically domestically. The Afghanistan fiasco, growing frustrations with handling the pandemic, and coercive and authoritarian mandates have seen President Biden’s approval ratings sink to the mid-40s.
On the other hand, Modi is flying high at a 70% approval rating with a successful vaccination program that has administered over 800 million voluntary doses of vaccines in India. India’s economy, now the fifth largest in the world, is also on the rebound. This assessment has given an ever-confident Modi an upper hand in projecting India’s leadership in vaccine production, medical science research and technology, climate change, democracy, and India’s traditional wisdom.
The first fifty years since India’s independence in 1947 were largely uneventful in the Indo-US relationships. The last two decades have seen some significant developments despite slow progress. The fluid international relations situation in a multipolar quantum world, exemplified by the formation of AUKUS and the subsequent recalling of the French ambassador to the US, makes it hard to predict an exact future trajectory of the Indo-US relationship. However, in general, most analysts agree on a robust bilateral friendship between the two countries to continue to grow steadily.
Image source: IndiaTVnews
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