Modis Foreign Policy

A riveting account of how a popularly elected leader has steered the world's largest democracy toward authoritarianism and intolerance Over the past two decades, thanks to Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalism has been coupled with a form of national-populism that has ensured its success at the polls, first in Gujarat and then in India at large. Modi managed to seduce a substantial number of citizens by promising them development and polarizing the electorate along ethno-religious lines. Both facets of this national-populism found expression in a highly personalized political style as Modi related directly to the voters through all kinds of channels of communication in order to saturate the public space. Drawing on original interviews conducted across India, Christophe Jaffrelot shows how Modi's government has moved India toward a new form of democracy, an ethnic democracy that equates the majoritarian community with the nation and relegates Muslims and Christians to second-class citizens who are harassed by vigilante groups. He discusses how the promotion of Hindu nationalism has resulted in attacks against secularists, intellectuals, universities, and NGOs. Jaffrelot explains how the political system of India has acquired authoritarian features for other reasons, too. Eager to govern not only in New Delhi, but also in the states, the government has centralized power at the expense of federalism and undermined institutions that were part of the checks and balances, including India's Supreme Court. Modi's India is a sobering account of how a once-vibrant democracy can go wrong when a government backed by popular consent suppresses dissent while growing increasingly intolerant of ethnic and religious minorities.

Contrary to prior expectations, Narendra Modi has expended a significant amount of time, energy and political capital in conducting India's engagement with the outside world since becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. In accordance with wider perceptions about Modi, there were expectations of significant, if not radical, change in Indian foreign policy under his charge. This sentiment led to a section of Indian strategists and foreign policy watchers conceiving the notion of a 'Modi Doctrine' in Indian foreign policy. This notion of foreign policy 'doctrines' is not new to the analysis of Indian foreign policy. Previous incarnations include the 'Indira Doctrine' of the 1970s, the 'Gujral Doctrine' for a brief period in the late 1990s and the 'Manmohan Doctrine' in the period before Modi was elected as prime minister.This edited volume attempts to interrogate the extent to which Indian foreign policy, under Modi, has undergone significant change and the extent to which this manifests itself as a new doctrine in Indian foreign policy. The individual chapters cover key bilateral relationships (the United States, China, Australia and Pakistan) as well as broader regional relationships (South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region) and specific themes (such as economic diplomacy).

Modi's World tells the story of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vigorous diplomacy and his aspiration to elevate India's place in the world. It offers insights into Modi's foreign policy inheritance, his efforts to build on the foundations laid by his recent predecessors, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, and set more ambitious international goals of his own for India. The book, based on Raja Mohan's columns for the Express, examines the new opportunities that Modi's energy and intensity have generated for India's relations with the major powers and its neighbours in the subcontinent, Asia and the Indian Ocean. Raja Mohan reviews India's new initiatives under Modi to put diplomacy at the service of economic development, deepen the ties with the diaspora, and develop a new vocabulary for Indian foreign policy. He takes a close look at Modi's attempts to end Delhi's defensiveness on the world stage, inject greater flexibility into India's positions on trade and climate change, discard past slogans like non-alignment, and construct a new framework of pragmatic internationalism. At the same time, Raja Mohan takes a critical look at some of the domestic constraints that could limit Modi's ambition to make India a 'leading power' in the world. Crisply argued and written, Modi's World provides the reader a sharp focus on an area of intense activity.

Offers an analysis of Modi's forreign policy. The Asia-Pacific region has become the pivot of global politics. India's profile has rapidly increased since the last two decades and is now being considered as an important country in shaping the power equilibrium at the global level in general and within the Asia Pacific in particular.

Narendra Modi's first year as Indian Prime Minister has witnessed many bold and pragmatic moves as part of India's foreign policy initiatives. What is the larger game plan that he is following? Is India now ready to be more engaged in global affairs? How would he balance China? Or would he? This brief commissioned by Society for Policy Studies and written by a former top Indian diplomat Amit Dasgupta answers these and many other questions as also unravels the new Indian government's foreign policy and shares a prospective road map for the future. A must-read for all foreign policy professionals, this report would be invaluable to FIIs and multinational corporations looking to do business with India as well.

This book, enriched by the contributions of serious researchers, deals with different aspects of India's foreign policy during the Modi years. The included essays throw light on the elements of change and continuity in Modi's foreign policy and social dynamics. The book is comprised of four sections: India and the Major Powers; India and South Asia; India and Near Abroad; and India and the Continents of Africa and South America. Each contributor, while studying India's relation with one country or region, examines important factors of foreign policy, such as geo-strategy, geo-economics, ideology, national interest, and personality. It is hoped that policy-makers, academics and students will find this study worthwhile and useful. [Subject: Politics, Foreign Policy, South Asian Studies, Comparative Studies]

Narendra Modi’s energetic personal diplomacy and promise to make India a ‘leading power’ surprised many analysts. Most had predicted that his government would concentrate on domestic issues, on the growth and development demanded by Indian voters, and that he lacked necessary experience in international relations. Instead, Modi’s first term saw a concerted attempt to reinvent Indian foreign policy by replacing inherited understandings of its place in the world with one drawn largely from Hindu nationalist ideology. Following Modi’s re-election in 2019, this book explores the drivers of this reinvention, arguing it arose from a combination of elite conviction and electoral calculation, and the impact it has had on India’s international relations.

States today are far more engaged in diplomacy than ever before, actively building relations with other states to harness their mutual commercial and cultural strengths. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outlook to global affairs is no different, yet there is a nuanced approach in linking India’s foreign policy to domestic transformation. While on the one hand, his policies seek to attract foreign capital, technology and open foreign markets for Indian products, on the other, they are geared towards regional stability, peace and prosperity. All events are texts to be analysed and the authors in this volume do so but emphatically underline that India’s diplomacy under Modi has got a go-getting edge, that it is no longer foreign anymore but a matter of public affairs and that with Modi at the helm, India is set to leverage its role and make itself a ‘diplomatic superpower’. The nuanced and thought-provoking essays, by some of the most well-respected analysts and practitioners of diplomacy, make this book a must-read for not just professionals and serious readers but for the uninitiated as well.

Since becoming India's prime minister in 2014, Narendra Modi has been a tour de force in foreign policymaking. A vastly experienced administrator who has held key public positions as chief minister of an Indian state for more than a decade, and now as prime minister, he has always seen value in foreign affairs and devoted special attention to it with his unique entrepreneurial flair and coherent set of ideas. Every realm of Indian foreign policy- commercial diplomacy, defence diplomacy, diaspora outreach, cultural diplomacy, geostrategy and soft power- has been transformed by him with a sense of destiny not witnessed in recent memory. Indians and people the world over have noticed his star presence and are asking questions like 'Why is he investing so much time and energy into promoting India's international relations and global image'?; 'What are his vision and goals for India's role in the world'?' 'What kind of distinct techniques define his approach to foreign policy?'; 'How is he changing India's self-understanding and preparing it for world affairs?'. This book provides the answers by delving into the mind and method behind Narendra Modi's avatar as India's diplomat-in-chief. It argues that under his able watch, India is heading toward great power status in the international order.