India as a Pivotal State Shaping a Post-Western World: From Periphery to Centre

In today’s global politics, India’s clout has grown significantly. New Delhi’s foreign policy is solidly rooted in an ambitious and assertive vision of international ordering. In terms of the global distributional dimension, India sees the world as decidedly post-Western and multipolar, with India as an emerging yet undisputed pole. India’s ordering vision is therefore strongly rooted in polycentrism and multi-alignment. Integrating the priorities of the Global South in international affairs remains one of India’s explicit foreign-policy aims. Normatively, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Hinduism has become a key tool to forge a national identity under the concept of “one nation, one people, one culture”. Internationally, India’s ambitions to become a great power are rooted in self-perceptions as a civilisational state. Institutionally, India wants to see multilateral institutions transformed to accommodate its enhanced role in world affairs and supports alternative institutions that reflect developing countries’ interests. New Delhi is a strong proponent of minilateralism and of membership in multiple and seemingly contradictory institutional arrangements. In terms of the temporal dimension, India has taken great strides as a pivotal state in global affairs since 2014 and envisions itself in a Golden Era up to 2047 when it aims to be a developed state.