Contrary to the efforts of the Sino-Wahhabi lobby, the India-US relationship has emerged stronger as a consequence of the Modi visit.
In the mind of any Japanese, his or her country will be known as Nippon, not Japan, which is the name used by foreigners for the country. In a similar way, to Germans among other Germans, their country would be known as Deutschland, never Germany, the name used by foreigners to identify the country. From times stretching back several millennia, our land has been known as Bharat. In more recent times, the term India came into use, and was popularised during the era of British colonial rule, which stretched over almost three centuries. Just as Bangalore or Calcutta or Bombay became global brands, so did India gain popularity worldwide as the name applied to the subcontinent. This is that part of Asia which encompasses present-day Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bharat i.e. India.
“Divide and Rule” was used across centuries to prevent the people of the Subcontinent from uniting in common purpose, the effects of such a policy are visible to this day. Every individual is a child of the Divine, and hence all of us who are in Mother Earth are brothers and sisters to each other. All too often, persistently, every religion as taught in classrooms and in homes should unite under the common rubric of One Humanity, the call of the 2023 President of the G-20 (now G-21, with the addition of the African Union), Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Bharat i.e. India. Instead, the foundational thread of unity which underpins each faith gets ignored, getting replaced by concepts centred around exclusivity and indeed religious supremacy. Sanatan Dharma is the universal faith that has been evolved in India from times immemorial.
Sanatanis are taught to respect all faiths that eschew violence and intimidation, such as demonising other faiths or in seeking to make use of poverty to entice changes in belief. Such is the bedrock of the vision which was articulated by Chairperson Modi as the theme of the 2023 G20 Summit at Delhi. The good news is that the Summit demonstrated that Bharat, i.e. India was a global force for good, a fact ignored by institutions that have lost effectiveness and relevance as a consequence of not including the world’s most populous country and the largest economic powerhouse within the Global South in the UN Security Council as a Permanent Member with the same powers as others in the same category
Since 2014, when Narendra Modi took the oath of office as the Prime Minister of Bharat i.e. India, the country has changed a great deal. No longer are there vestiges of doubt about the future trajectory of the country. It is clearly on the road towards joining the US and China as superpowers, with Russia, Indonesia and Brazil following suit.
Despite efforts by NATO to first constrain and subsequently degrade its capabilities and thereby its future, the Russian Federation by virtue of being a Gross National Resources (GNR) superpower, combined with the talents found in abundance among the Russian people, remains a Great Power. PM Modi has distinguished himself by being on the friendliest of terms with both the major NATO powers as well as with Russia under Putin, just as he has remained a friend of both Palestine as well as Israel, while opposing acts of terror such as the October 7, 2023 terror attack by Hamas on the Nova music festival in Israel. Under PM Modi, the most populous country in the world is not just confident of the future, but is willing to respond in kind to attacks on it, whether kinetic as at Galwan in 2020 or verbal, as witness the whitewashing by the Biden White House of a terror facilitator, G.S. Pannun, including blaming the Government of India just before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls of seeking to assassinate him.
EAM Jaishankar was polite but unrestrained in his condemnation of such a smear by the Biden administration on the world’s largest democracy. PM Modi was unfazed even by as provocative a measure as elements of the Sino-Wahhabi lobby hosting Pannun in the White House just before Prime Minister Modi landed in Delaware for the final Quad Summit of President Biden. Coolly, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on ensuring security from aggressors in the Indo-Pacific, PM Modi had a very productive visit to the US, including by avoiding controversy and not meeting either of the two 2024 US Presidential candidates, Kamala Harris or Donald J. Trump. Since his first visit to the US in 2014, Indian Americans have felt a renewed sense of pride in their heritage, and have in overwhelming numbers been promoters of a strong India-US partnership.
Most important of all, from 2014 onwards, the hangover of colonial rule has lifted, so that India is no longer considered as such by desis but as Bharat. We are all proud Bharatiyas now. No longer is there a sense of being incapable of world class achievement, rather, there is a sense of mission, a sense of confidence, in being able to match and overtake the best anywhere else. While promoting Make in India, it must not be forgotten that what is meant is not just Made by India, but made in India by companies from friendly countries. Contrary to the efforts of the Sino-Wahhabi lobby, the India-US relationship has emerged stronger as a consequence of the Modi visit, a welcome augury for a future destined to witness the success of democracies over autocracies.