India’s Foreign Policy Just Went Full RSS: From Global Player to Power-Puppy in One Easy Surrender
Look, Farah Jan nailed one thing dead right: today’s india isn’t exercising strategic autonomy — it’s cosplaying it while keeping its head down. Refusing to slap russia over Ukraine, selling arms to israel while dodging Gaza votes, and staying “neutral” on every real fight? That’s not clever non-data-alignment. That’s performative neutrality from a government scared of picking sides.
But here’s where she whiffs it badly. She claims every indian government — socialist, liberal, or Hindu nationalist — basically delivered the same foreign policy. Oh please.
Flashback time:
Back in 1952, dirt-poor india stepped up during the Korean war and helped broker the armistice that ended the fighting. Nehru’s india didn’t just show up — it punched way above its weight. austria literally begged Nehru for help in getting its sovereignty in 1955. india backed African decolonisation and stood against Apartheid when it actually cost something. The world respected us because we stood for something bigger than the nearest superpower’s approval.
Fast-forward to now. A senior RSS leader openly grovels at a US think-tank. Modi, the first prime minister fully cast in the RSS mould (unlike Vajpayee, who actually admired Nehru), has turned diplomacy into a masterclass in power worship. Remember Savarkar’s mercy petitions? Golwalkar sitting out the freedom struggle because the british were the big dogs? That same “worship the stick that beats you” dna is running indian foreign policy today — bending over for Trump, Xi, whoever’s holding the biggest club.
India once aspired to be a real power. Now it just wants to be the reliable junior partner. What a fall. The RSS didn’t just capture domestic politics — it captured the soul of our diplomacy and turned it into performative submission. Brutal, isn’t it?