Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Indian Politics

Transforming India from a Balancing to a Leading Power ( Source- The National Interest / Authors-Jon Huntsman Jr & Bharath Gopalaswamy)

Image credits- Flickr / MEA Official photo gallery, Government of India Source- The National Interest Authors- Jon Huntsman Jr & Bharath Gopalaswamy Although India’s economic story has been the subject of much discussion in the United States in the past decade, its foreign policy has not received similar attention. This has something to do with the consensus in Washington about India’s hesitancy in the exercise of realpolitik. Last month, however, India’s newly appointed foreign secretary and leading strategist Subrahmanyam Jaishankar delivered an attention getter. In a major speech, Jaishankar emphasized that India was intent on playing the role of a “leading” instead a “balancing” power in Asia. This statement comes as a significant shift to the prevailing perceptions concerning India’s reluctance to actualize its role as a great power.   Until recently, India was seen as a power that could serve as a counterweight to China and help the United States in bal

Chanakya: India's Truly Radical Machiavelli ( Source- The National Interest, Author- Akhilesh Pillalamarri)

Chanakya Source- The National Interest Author- Akhilesh Pillalamarri In his recent book, World Order, Henry Kissinger refers to the ancient Indian treatise, the Arthashastra, as a work that lays out the requirements of power, which is the “dominant reality” in politics. For Kissinger, the Arthashastra contained a realist vision of politics long before the Prince, which Kissinger deems “a combination of Machiavelli and Clausewitz.” Meanwhile, the German sociologist Max Weber once called it “truly radical ‘Machiavellianism’ . . . compared to it, Machiavelli’s The Prince is harmless.” The Arthashastra is indeed a masterpiece of statecraft, diplomacy, and strategy and is an example of non-Western literature that should be read as part of the “realist” canon. Its prescriptions are especially relevant for foreign policy today. Although the Arthashastra is ostensibly authored by Kautilya (“crooked”), most scholars agree that Kautilya was a pen name of the ancient Indian

Indian Politics: Out With the Left, In With the Right ( Source- The Diplomat, Author- Akhilesh Pillalamari)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author Source- The Diplomat Author- Akhilesh Pillalamari Political scientists in the United States divide American political history into several “party systems,” which refer to periods characterized by certain political alignments and features. For example, the period during and after the American Civil War is known as the Third Party System and was characterized by the dominance of the Republican Party, which won the war, ended slavery, and presided over a period of industrialization. The evolution of party politics through a number of systems is characteristic of most democratic countries. Similarly, India is currently in the process of undergoing a new political alignment with distinct characteristics. While the periodization of India’s political systems is debatable, it is generally accepted that prior to the current political alignment in India, which features a party from the right attaining a majority in India’s Parliament for

RIP, Indian National Congress ( Source- The National Interest, Author- Sadanand Dhume)

S ource- The National Interest Author- Sadanand Dhume Is the party over for the Indian National Congress Party? On October 19, Congress received another jolt in what has arguably been its worst year since its founding in British India in 1885. The right-of-center Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) turfed out Congress governments in two of India’s most prosperous states: Maharashtra in the west (home to India’s financial capital, Mumbai), and Haryana in the north, a bubbling hub of outsourcing and overpriced real estate bordering Delhi. Both states have long been regarded as Congress strongholds, but in terms of seats in their legislatures—India follows a parliamentary system at both the federal and state levels—the party has slipped to third place. These setbacks follow the mauling Congress suffered at the hands of the BJP in national elections in May. After running India at the head of a coalition for the past decade, Congress now controls less than one-tenth of the seats in