While the India of today bears no perceivable resemblance to the India of yesterday – an India that was stuck in the quagmire of a license-permit-quota Raj system, the India of tomorrow is still evolving. Whilst the contours of such an evolution are explicit in the spheres of free market, preservation and embellishment of the fabric of democracy and an outreach that encompasses within its embrace, continental neighbours and inter-continental well-wishers alike, a cataclysmically shifting geopolitical environ pose its own set of challenges and hurdles.

India would need to adroitly surmount these obstacles with both the acerbic brilliance of a Chanakya and the demure, yet powerful techniques of a Narasimha Rao. In an impeccably measured, intelligently analysed and invigoratingly researched work, India’s External Affairs Minister, and a seasoned veteran at realpolitik, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, dwells on the strategy to be adopted by India if she has to tide over the trials and tribulations of an uncompromising, yet promising change. As Jaishankar warns, there is no time for regressing into Prelapsarian thinking.

The pulchritude of this book, which is mainly a compilation of talks given by Jaishankar at various fora, lies in its simplicity and practicality. The author brings to bear his storied experience as a diplomat that saw him execute stints spanning geographies and across continents. Not shying away from calling a spade for what it actually is, Jaishankar’s work is a handy guide for policy mavens as well as every enthusiastic student of international diplomacy.  

The book kicks off with an unfortunate insight into past complacencies that reduced India to the role of a mere bystander as an eddy of reforms passed by. For elucidating this unfortunate event, Jaishankar employs the depiction in a memorable film by Satyajit Ray, where two self-absorbed Nawabs in the province of Awadh are engrossed in a game of chess, while the British, taking complete advantage of such an intransigence, assert their superiority over the unsupervised kingdom. As Jaishankar illustrates, it is such an intransigence that transformed an obstreperous Pakistan into a revanchist and perpetually trouble mongering neighbour.

Political romanticism and an overt reliance on entrenched dogma, have, both cost India significantly. The debacles of the “Havana Handshake[2]” and the “Sharm-el-Sheikh[3]” were decoys masquerading as peace overtures. India should have been more aware. Preceding Sharm-el-Sheikh was the tragedy of Kargil, when an over the top exhibition of detente by Pakistan turned out to be a meticulously crafted farrago that ultimately found its crescendo in a dastardly infiltration into Indian territory by the Pakistanis.

As Jaishankar illustrates, India’s foreign policy is plagued by three formidable ghosts of the past. “One is the 1947 Partition, which reduced the nation both demographically and politically. An unintended consequence was to give China more strategic space in Asia. Another is the delayed economic reforms that were undertaken a decade and a half after those of China. And far more ambivalently. The fifteen-year gap in capabilities continues to put India at a great disadvantage. The third is the prolonged exercise of the nuclear option.” The most plausible way to overcome this troika of blunders will be to go all out on inclusivity. Jaishankar asserts that “India has to engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring Japan into play”.

In an utterly compelling essay titled, “Krishna’s Choice, The Strategic Culture of a Rising Power”, India’s External Affairs Minister bemoans the Western ineptness in not viewing India through the lens of one its most enduring and indelible epics, “The Mahabharata[4]”. The story of the Pandavas and Kauravas, according to Jaishankar have the same relevance (if not an exacerbated one) for a multipolar world as it had during the epoch of its playing out. While Western strategies are eulogized by framing them against Homer’s Iliad and Machiavelli’s “The Prince”, and China’s political ambitions are evaluated against the “Three Kingdoms”, it is a travesty that Mahabharata has been consigned – unfairly so – to the unfortunate confines of history. Mahabharata according to Jaishankar contains every facet of diplomacy and real politick.

From an unorthodox bent of mind to tried and tested stratagem, the epic that dwarfs its Western counterparts in length embeds it all. In a classic De Bono in Dwaraka instance, just before the battle of Kurukshetra, Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers and Duryodhana, the Kaurava Prince seek an audience with Lord Krishna. When offered a choice between Lord Krishna’s Army and the diviner’s own assistance, Arjuna in a show of tactical acumen chooses the assistance of the Lord in lieu of his Army. This incidence, irrespective of being labelled as mythology or a real-life occurrence, depending upon whether the reader is a believer or an atheist, finds direct corroboration in the paths taken by the Modi Government. Carefully nurtured alliances with Israel and the USA, and an unstinting friendship with Russia over the overtures of the Belt and Road Initiative of Xi Jingping bear ample testimony to India’s policy directives.

The Mahabharata is also a fount of innovation and opportunism. Not every act of statecraft needs to be played out by the book and not every war needs to be waged ethically. Duryodhana’s demise at the hand of Bhima, Abhimanyu’s tragic end at the hands of the Kauravas, and Karna’s unfortunate death at the hands of Arjuna all find an uncanny repetition in the battles of Bosworth Field in England, Sekigahara in Japan, Plassey in India and the Japanese saga of the 47 Ronin. More recently, the Indian Army’s brilliant coup over their Chinese counterparts in the Ladakh stand-off as memorably illustrated by Colonel (Retired) Danvir Chauhan[5], is a classic illustration of out of the box thinking – a maneuver straight out of the Mahabharata playbook. 

Arjuna’s crisis of confidence in the middle of the battlefield required the genius of a Krishna to interfere and instill the necessary spurt in the warrior. Although not finding a mention in the book, it would be apposite to recollect two instances of absolute crisis in confidence which India experienced. The first one was in 1962 triggered by the Chinese incursion and usurpation of Indian territories, and, a second during the Balance of Payment crisis in 1991. In both instances it required the trenchant obduracy of a Narendra Modi (nearly after five decades of impotent inaction), and the incandescent visionary brilliance of Narasimha Rao to overcome what, seemed like existential crises.

The USP of both these leaders was an extraordinary expertise in the art of positioning. As Jaishankar illustrates, “Their (Pandavas) ethical positioning was at the heart of a superior branding. Through acts of valour, nobility and generosity, they generally came out as the better side. Admittedly, they were victims on many occasions, but their ability to play victim was no less. Their very upbringing in the forest gives them a head start with public opinion. The attempt to kill them in the house of lac shows them as an injured party. Accepting an unfair partition of the kingdom fortifies that image. Successfully executing a start-up kingdom in Indraprastha adds to their lustre. The abominable treatment of their wife Draupadi gives them a casus belli that is never allowed to be dampened. The masterstroke was to make an offer of reasonable settlement and accepting just five towns on the eve of the war, so that peer opinion shifts in their favour.”

Both Narasimha Rao and Narendra Modi provided the world a casus belli to trust India and regard it as a future economic and political powerhouse capable of not just influencing but shaping world polity. As Sanjaya Baru, sets out in his fantastic book, “1991: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Made History[6]”, a soft-spoken external demeanour that made PV look like a reluctant mendicant, belied a will power that was cast in iron. The man neither had time for fools nor was inclined to tolerate political shenanigans and chicanery. His ability to deal a strong hand when the situation warranted – but without losing even a shred of composure in the process – was legion. 

In another essay titled, “The Dogmas of Delhi, Overcoming the Hesitations of History”, Jaishankar reasserts the relevance and importance of parting with well entrenched dogmas that otherwise serve as sacrosanct relics. India, to its great credit has absorbed this philosophy in the recent past. While the first few decades of the post-Independence era witnessed trends alternating between a policy of Non-Alignment and an inextricable yet explainable alliance with the erstwhile Soviet Union to counter the threat posed by a Sino-US-Pak alliance, the last decade or so has seen a tectonic shift in India’s geopolitical strategy and ambition. “The relevance of the US or China is far more than anytime earlier. The Russian relationship may have defied odds by remaining incredibly steady. But it is the exception, not the rule. Japan has now become an important factor in our calculations. The rediscovery of Europe is also underway, with France now a critical strategic partner. The Gulf has been bridged in an extraordinarily effective manner. ASEAN has grown closer, and Australia’s relevance is more apparent. A strong sense of the extended neighbourhood is apparent. Africa is the focus of development assistance and opening of new Embassies. And as evident from diplomatic activities, our outreach extends from South America and the Caribbean to the South Pacific and Baltics. Closer home, there is an unprecedented investment in the neighbourhood whose consequences are becoming apparent. Put together, the scale and intensity of our global engagement would be difficult to recognize for someone dealing with it even a few years ago.” India has, under some astute leadership tried hard to come out of the cocoon of self-absorption into a world of intricate geopolitical play.

Whether in involves concluding White Shipping agreements with seventeen nations, providing coastal surveillance radars to eight of them, naval capabilities to six, and establishing an Integrated Fusion Centre for Maritime Domain Awareness, India has displayed a bent of resolve, that has been, putting it mildly, admirable and refreshing. Unlike the BRI, India has not worked its way to seduce any country into the vice like grip of a debt trap. Jaishankar’s contention leads the reader to recollect the calamitous experience of Hambantota[7] in Sri Lanka and the more recent Électricité du Laos, the Laos state owned electricity company[8], episodes which unraveled the “snake in the grass” perfidy that is the handmaiden of any generous Chinese assistance. In sheer contradistinction, as Jaishankar illustrates, India has been the epitome of transparency and camaraderie. “Overall, it has offered 300 Lines of Credit (LoC) to sixty-four countries involving 540 projects. The bulk of the LoCs and projects are with Africa, now at 321 projects involving 205 LoCs. In addition, India currently has 181 projects in Asia, thirty-two in Latin America and Caribbean and three each in Central Asia and Oceania.”

In another essay titled “Of Mandarins and Masses, Public Opinion and the West”, Jaishankar stirs a hornet’s nest when he claims “it may be hard for diplomats to digest, but the Indian Street has often displayed better instincts than Lutyens’ Delhi when it comes to assessing opportunities and risks abroad.” This Chapter also alludes to an increasing spurt of nationalization across the globe that may well turn out to be the “X-Factor” in future global relations. However, the nationalism which Jaishankar talks here is not a neologism that stands for either totalitarianism or autarky. These days, it has become a fashion to spawn syllogisms that create ideologies out of incidents and make mountains out of molehills. Hence, we have a veritable terminology soup that is at once bewildering and exasperating. ‘Wokeism’, ‘Woke capitalism’, ‘Social Justice movement’, ‘Progressive Movement’ have all infiltrated the lexicon of daily life and confounded an already sizeable confusion.

However, the nationalism, promulgated by Jaishankar, is one that appears, “in different sizes and shapes, can be assertive, reactive or just expressive. The confident category reflects the real and psychological outcome of shifts in the world power hierarchy. It is represented by the rise of nations like China and India, of a continent like Asia and the consequent rebalancing of the global order.” India is no exception to the global order. Unshackled by a need for protectionism, India’s inclusive brand of nationalism, one that has brought about a paradigm shift in thinking, “does not translate into an ‘us versus the world’ mentality. For reasons that derive from our innate pluralism, there is a tradition of reconciling the nationalism with global engagement. Not driven by victimhood, it has the potential to serve as a bridge between the established and emerging orders.” This pluralism finds its métier in India’s sincere and benevolent outreach. A growing commitment to trans-national highway construction, multi-modal transport initiatives, railway modernization, inland waterways, coastal shipping, and port development underlines its seriousness. In fact, better logistics has become the dominant theme of India’s neighbourhood outreach. India’s cooperation agenda today covers white shipping, blue economy, disaster response, anti-piracy and counterterrorism, as well as hydrography.

One of the highlights of the book is an essay titled “The Nimzo-Indian Defense, Managing China’s Rise”. Based on the hypermodern opening in the game of chess that was developed by Aron Nimzowitsch who introduced it to master-level chess in the early 20th century, this Chapter provides an overview of Sino-Indian cultural bindings that extends over thousands of years and the simmering undercurrents that project themselves in border disputes covering Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. At the time the book went to the press, the unfortunate incident of Galwan triggered by Chinese misadventure, and the daring occupation of strategic mountain tops by the Indian Armed Forces had not occurred. However, the deep and indelible links between India and China is illustrated in poignant detail by Jaishankar. “It was telling that Chairman Mao himself reminded the Indian Ambassador in 1950 of a popular saying that Chinese who do good in this lifetime would get reincarnated in India in the next. The concept of Western Heavens, the land of Lord Buddha’s birth, ran deep in Chinese society, as did the fame of the Journey to the West on Xuan Zang’s travels.”

Here again India’s unfortunate naivete and a sense of hapless innocuousness finds an emotional mention. India’s unfathomable reticence in Jammu and Kashmir allowed a rapid deterioration in Sino-Indian bilateral relations. As late as 1959, when India had its first major clash with China, President Ayub Khan was also talking of repelling Chinese territorial incursions. “Yet by early 1962, the two nations were discussing their de facto meeting point and Pakistan actually transferred Indian territory to China in 1963. At that time, it was a gold card member of two Western alliances – SEATO and CENTO.”

In the epilogue, Jaishankar warns the readers about the potential pitfalls and perils of a possible “Corona nationalism.” The COVID-19 pandemic has not just triggered a humanitarian crisis but has also altered the vector and trajectory of how countries deal with one another. Solidarity has been sacrificed at the altar of selfishness and threats of retribution and counter retribution over the transmissibility of the virus occupies centre spread on a daily basis. Dearth of Protective equipment, masks and easy accessibility to health care not only lead to medical professionals having to resort to a heartbreaking triage system but also a comprehensible state of exasperation that finds an outlet in the form of violent street protests and demonstrations. As Jaishankar warns, the contours of a post pandemic era would be alien to its progenitor. Unthinkable concepts such as perpetual remote working, cross border teams working together in perpetuity, reverse migration from urban to rural and semi-urban settings would all be the fall out of this insidious transmissible scourge.

However, from every crisis, stems an opportunity. The COVID-19 phenomena may just be the platform that India exploits to be a self-reliant, self-sufficient and vibrant economy. Already recognized as the pharmacy of the world, India has supplied medicines to a multitude of nations under a grant scheme. It is time to ascend the value chain further and pay heed to the clarion call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be “Atmanirbhar.” Such self-reliance can be a possibility only when practiced in accordance with the tenets of plurality, inclusivity and collaboration.

India has only one direction in which to progress resolutely. The direction referred to by Thomas Schelling as set out in the opening paragraphs of this review. Forward. To surge ahead mindless of both controllable and uncontrollable obstacles posed by both nature and man. To slowly trot until the time is right to gallop. Once such a time arrives, the world will be India’s Oyster.

(The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World is published by Harper Collins Publishers, India)

1. Choice and Consequence: Perspectives of an errant economist, Harvard University Press, 1984.
2. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-havana-handshake/232568
3. https://www.thehindu.com/news/Pakistan-What-was-Sharm-el-Sheikh-all-about/article16877879.ece
4. The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa by Kisari Mohan Ganguli (18 Vols), The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa by Kisari Mohan Ganguli (18 Vols)
5. https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/indian-offensive-retake-chinese-seized-territory-hidden-story?fbclid=IwAR3Oe82lobcd6ljq67L3Oee_pKIqKPJOIJkceS4TTwt_0tKQPG7dRF_TLlI#.X1Rbjux7O7x.twitter
6. 1991: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Made History, Aleph Book Company, 2016
7. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-sri-lanka-port.html
8. https://thediplomat.com/2020/09/laos-stumbles-under-rising-chinese-debt-burden/