Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
In truth, many Indians have yet to decide just what sort of relationship they
want with the United States. For all the celebratory words emanating from New
Delhi concerning the vastly improved tone in US-India relations, India remains
conflicted and unsure about its new partner.
How else to explain the pronounced warmth in ties between India and Russia,
which goes far beyond anything demanded by old bonds of friendship? Indo-
Russian relations possess a cordiality out of all proportion to the material
inducements Moscow offers India, and are pursued by New Delhi even at the
risk of offending a Washington still inclined to suspect Russian intentions. When
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India in late 2000, the two countries
announced the creation of a new 'strategic partnership'.
While insisting that they did not seek to revive their Cold War alliance,
Vajpayee and Putin called for a 'multipolar global structure', which could only
be interpreted as a rejection of the current international order where the United
States is unrivaled in economic clout and military might. On Vajpayee's return
visit to Moscow in November 2001, the two sides reaffirmed their renewed
friendship and agreed on new Russian arms sales to New Delhi.
Washington has no need to fear, let alone condemn, this rejuvenated Russo-
Indian relationship. Even so, it seems obvious that one of the principal
motivations driving New Delhi is an uneasiness over too close an embrace by the
world's sole superpower. An excessive reliance on the United States, Indian
analysts have warned, would give Washington unwelcome leverage over India.
The Indian government no doubt sees a revived relationship with Moscow as
giving it maneuvering room so as to escape Washington's smothering clutches.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that not all Indians have moved
beyond an attitude toward the United States, common until recently, that
identified America and Americans as the source of most of the world's
problems. As one American observer has acerbically remarked, India's political
and intellectual élites have historically combined 'the most insular tendencies of
Fabian socialism, tiermondisme and a British public school-bred snobbery into
an especially intense variety of anti-Americanism.'
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Many Indians are still quite
capable of seeing a hidden American hand, a sinister American conspiracy,
behind events. And what constitutes 'leadership' in the eyes of many Americans
all too often appears more like 'hegemony' in India. These unfavorable attitudes
and stereotypes possess nowhere near the strength they once had, but they persist
and inevitably color the way Indians of a certain generation and background view
relations with Washington.
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So it is only prudent that the United States avoid getting too carried away with
Vajpayee's evocation of a 'natural' alliance linking Washington and New Delhi.
To characterize the formulation 'natural allies' as nothing more than a rhetorical
flourish, designed to please an American audience, goes too far. Nonetheless,
Indian sources suggest that the phrase first attracted the prime minister's notice
