India’s Rise and the Geopolitics of Power.

India’s Rise: Welcome on the Surface, Worry Beneath

You’ll often hear people in the West and China say that India’s rise is something the world should welcome—or that it’s simply “inevitable.” Publicly, both the West and China often speak of India’s rise as a natural or even welcome event. But if you scratch beneath the surface, the reality is a bit more complicated, the geopolitical reality is more layered. Both these powers have their own reasons to be nervous about a strong, independent India.

The West’s Uneasy Relationship with a Sovereign India

For the West, India is useful as a counterweight to China, yet the prospect of a fully sovereign India raises alarms. For China, India is its immediate rival—regional, ideological, and militarily. It's seen less as a blessing and more as a disruption.

The West has grown comfortable in a world dominated by American and European power, largely operated under a unipolar order led by the US. India’s refusal to fall neatly into one camp undermines that structure. A fully sovereign India—one that doesn’t always pick sides—threatens that balance. Washington may cheer India’s role in balancing China, but its unease shows when India acts on its own terms.

Economically, the West may be encouraging companies to move supply chains to India under the “China+1” strategy, but as India’s industries grow and climb the value chain, it won’t just compete with China. It will also challenge Western companies in areas like pharmaceuticals, information technology, and advanced manufacturing. Politically, Washington would prefer India as a dependable partner against Beijing, but India doesn’t play that game. It follows a policy of multi-alignment, which was clear when it kept buying discounted Russian oil despite heavy Western pressure. In fact, by September 2025, the US had slapped sanctions and tariffs on some Indian goods in retaliation. And when it comes to shaping the future, India isn’t just asking for space at the West’s tables like the IMF or World Bank. Instead, it is helping build new ones through platforms like BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and the New Development Bank. That shift directly challenges Western control over global institutions.

India recognises the fact that standards and raking institutions are based n Western culture and understanding and often their perception and poor rankings of India stem from this background. In order to ensure that different cultures and ensure fair assessments, India has often brought this up internationally and has started developing it's version of fair assessment standards. Economically, too, India poses a long-term challenge. As its industries mature, they will compete not just with Chinese manufacturing but with Western companies as well. The image of India as a reliable ally is at odds with its multi-aligned reality.

China’s Sharper and More Immediate Fears

China’s concerns are different, more immediate and personal. India is its regional neighbor, not a distant partner. China’s anxieties are sharper. In the Indian Ocean, its expanding naval presence confronts India’s long-standing role as the regional power, making maritime dominance a zero-sum contest. On land, Beijing’s financial outreach to India’s neighbors creates encirclement, while India counters with its own diplomacy. The ideological competition is perhaps the deepest fault line: a democratic India rising on the world stage would present an alternative to China’s authoritarian narrative, undermining Beijing’s soft power. And lingering border tensions in the Himalayas ensure that rivalry is never far from conflict.

A rising democratic India also stands as a sharp ideological contrast to China’s model. India's democratic growth at a steady and often faster pace offers a compelling alternative for developing nations—something the Chinese would see as a threat to its own narrative. And of course, the long-standing border disputes in the Himalayas are a constant reminder that this rivalry.

Hidden Strategies: How Powers Try to Slow India Down

Now, if you imagine the quieter, more subtle side of geopolitics, the picture gets even more intriguing. The West would never risk pushing India closer to China through open hostility, but it could try slowing India down through regulations that look principled and sound noble on paper—like stricter rules on climate, data rules, compliance protocols to slow India’s momentum. It may also entice away India’s top minds through selective citizenship pathways or fund NGOs that appear to fight for democratic causes but in reality delay India’s major projects. China, meanwhile, could take a different approach—a strategy of “death by a thousand cuts.” It might tighten the debt web around India’s neighbors, quietly disrupt Indian industries by blocking the export of key raw materials, or even create controlled instability along India’s borders through refugee flows or political pressure on nearby regimes.

India’s Countermoves: From Multi-Alignment to Self-Reliance

But here’s the thing: India is not a passive piece on someone else’s chessboard. People here are used to struggle, sacrifice, and playing the long game. They are smart, they will accept short-term pain if it means long-term independence. That’s why India is not just reacting but preparing its own moves. Its strategy rests on turning challenges into levers of influence. Rather than resisting Western regulations, it can build fairer, alternative standards and rally other developing nations behind them. Instead of losing talent permanently, it can build research hubs that make top professionals want to return. By using its advanced digital systems, India can track and expose foreign money funneled into NGOs, reframing those activities as politically motivated attempts to stall progress. Against China, India may not outspend Beijing, but it can outmaneuver it by offering neighbors something China cannot—technology and tools for self-reliance rather than debt dependency. It can also use its massive market to demand that foreign companies build supply chains inside India, even if that means short-term costs. And by investing in the stability of its border regions and nearby states, it can cut off the roots of instability before they grow.

Instead of rejecting global rules, India leads in creating INCLUSIVE Global rules by offering neighbors and other countries help and cooperation with or without technology that strengthens sovereignty of these countries without strings attached.

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: India’s Civilizational Answer to Global Rivalries - THE WORLD IS ONE FAMILY

Ultimately, India’s resilience lies not just in policy or strategy, but in the capacity of its people to endure short-term discomfort for long-term autonomy. That resolve is coupled with a civilizational principle—Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, “the world is one family.” India’s rise is not aimed at exclusion or domination, but at creating space for itself while promoting a more balanced, cooperative global order.

In short, India’s rise won’t be stopped by quiet tricks or external pressure. The real engine is its people’s will to stay sovereign, even if it means enduring sacrifice in the short run. And behind that will lies a deeper vision drawn from India’s own ancient idea and traditions—the idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, “the world is one family.” India doesn’t want dominance for its own sake; it wants to rise in a way that allows it to protect its autonomy while also building a global order where cooperation, not control, sets the tone.

India can turn regulation into leadership by building its own standards. It can transform brain drain into brain circulation. It can shine light on foreign-funded dissent using its own digital platforms. It can offer neighbors help and freedom without strings.

India’s strength lies in ensuring its own independence while pushing for a world where power is shared, not hoarded.

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