Who Controls the Levers of the India–US Relations?

The perception that India was disinterested in the United States and acted difficult with the superpower dominates the analysis of India’s foreign policy over the past 75 years. Such broad conclusions are drawn without assessing the US policy vis-à-vis India. Based on these perceptions, Narendra Modi’s foreign policy is being touted as path-breaking. However, there is no radical break from the past and there is continuity in the Indian engagement with the US. Modi’s charisma and persona has done little to change the trajectory of India–US relations. The change is largely driven by the shift in American strategic focus towards what is now commonly called the Indo-Pacific.

The mainstream narrative suggests that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma and persona have ensured India’s ascent to the international high table. The dominant voices in the Indian foreign policy establishment—conservative as well as liberal—believe that Modi has initiated a radical break from the past and notched some notable victories in the external affairs domain. He has successfully offered the world a cultural package, sedimented in Hinduism, and ensured that the ethos of Indian foreign policy does not continue to be biased by ideological assumptions, from the Nehruvian era.