THE positioning is immaculate, to say the least. In times to come, not too distant in future, India would be a ‘southern’ power -- in the same manner of a ‘western’ power, as the term goes. But then, there used to be a question often: Would India be an ‘eastern’ power? -- asked in the contrarian context. However, Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar has put things in a better, finer and ‘Indian’ perspective -- India would not be an ‘eastern’ power at all, since the context is occidental. But India would certainly be a global ‘southern’ power. There could never be anything as succinct as this metaphor. Considered in a larger perspective, this description of what India is going to be should make every Indian proud as well as thoughtful.

 

The idea is clear, well-defined: India will not like to be contextually positioned. For, it has its own identity as a sovereign nation with a unique geographical location and geopolitical position. In actual terms, India sits on the line of global geopolitical axis, with a locale deep down -- in the southern part of the sphere, butting out into the Indian Ocean, as if a watch-tower on both sides -- east and west. So, the best and the only description -- geographically and geopolitically -- is that India would be a ‘southern’ power.

 

This stand-point of Dr. Jaishankar has an endearing angle for every Indian. Factually, India is already an Asian power with global dimensions. Its fast-growing economy, its sizeable military prowess, its technological advantage, its demographic dividend, its cultural high point -- all these have contributed to the process of expansion of the political circle of influence of India in the past some time. When Dr. Jaishankar asserts that India would be a ‘southern’ power, he also suggests that India is already on the way, if not at the very destination. But that point -- of power in actual terms -- is not far. For, India is already exerting itself as a global player in every possible manner, every possible method, every possible mode.

 

The ‘Howdy Modi’ rally in Houston was one of the latest testaments of India’s growing geopolitical footprint, though expressed through the massive concentration of the diaspora symbolically in the United States and factually all over the world. That a US President wants to stand tall and proud in front of 60,000 Indians and tell the world what he has achieved in presidency and what he intends to do in future, is not just a happenstance; it is, to say the least, only a symbolism that Mr. Donald Trump wished to use for his stated and unstated political and national objectives. From one angle, President Mr. Trump was acknowledging India’s ‘southern’ context.

 

In a rapidly changing world in which even the United Nations is under pressure -- mostly from India -- to evolve and execute reforms, what is most critical is how a country positions itself in the global reference to context. The manner in which India is conducting itself for some time now indicates vividly that the effort is, in reference and context, quintessentially Indian. It may never brag of being a global superpower, since that is not in India’s grain. Yet, there would be reasons good enough to be able to assert that India does not actually worry about being a ‘power’, but about being a country with its own, unique inherent strength. Dr. Jaishankar was referring exactly to this aspect.

 

This distinction -- between ‘power’ and ‘strength’ -- is critical, at least to India. Over time, it has built its strength but never worried about being a power.Dr. Jaishankar has put things in this perspective. It is a complicated process, but India has been able to make the best use of the available factors for its positioning, which Dr. Jaishankar has defined so capably.