India and the US - A New Hope

India's relationship with the US has come a long way in recent years. From the Clintons' love for the country to the Republicans' understanding of India's strategic benefits to America's own interests, the Cold War days of mistrust and deep suspicion between the two countries' diplomats are for the most part a distant memory. That India is increasingly being used by the US as a counterweight to China has gone from being a purely academic conjecture to a more explicitly understood fact. Barack Obama's overtures to India are in keeping with recent American governments' overly friendly policies toward India. While Indians are aware of America's reasons for a close relationship, they are confident of their independence and place in the world and so have no qualms about them and are happy to take what they get.

The US is nowhere more popular abroad than in India. While there are several plausible reasons for this, the fact that they are both large, diverse and young democracies is a foundation for many other similarities. Both countries also share a distrust of China, at least at the popular level. Being ideologically similar also renders them close. While Democrat governments have tended to harp on human rights issues and development, as is their wont, the Republicans have treated India in more Realist terms, and Indians have for this reason tended to be more forthcoming when Repubicans have been in power. The last few years are a clear indicator of this. George Bush for all his other shortcomings (if I may call them so, euphemistically) was a great friend of India's. However history remembers him, Indians will remember him for getting us the nuclear deal.

Barack Obama seems to understand India's strategic influence in the future world order and will surely only improve upon Bush's efforts to court India and possibly make it one of America's closest allies in the world. India and the US need each other. The Cold War years were a false start in many ways, with only the brief but glorious respite of Kennedy and Nehru's friendship. Thankfully the ambiguities of that relationship never turned to hostility at any point. Things were only waiting to take off. All the signs for them to do so now are evident. Let us hope it leads to a better, safer world at the very least.