Katherine Mayo, one of the influential American writers, wrote a scathing criticism to the Indian society and state in her book ‘Mother India’. The book nurtured a negative approach in United States and on its policies towards India in its early post-independent era. The book underlines a pathetic situation of Indian society and its state politics. It further underlined that India is caste ridden society which is ruled by poverty and ignorance. One of the fundamental arguments which the book proposes was that India should focus on its survival than to dream about great power.
Indo-US relations in early years of Indian independence was mostly shadowed by (other than ‘Mother India’), the cold war obsession, Nehru’s socialist approach and its inclination towards former Soviet Union, the NAM ideology and US’s geostrategic designs, in which Pakistan was more significant over India as the former was rightly situated between the worlds two inevitable regions viz. Middle east and the Central Asia.
On naming the US Ambassador to India, President Harry Truman had said ‘I thought India was pretty jammed with poor people and cows round streets, with doctors and people sitting on hot coals and bathing in the Ganges” (Shashi Tharoor: Pax Indica). This was the earlier attitude of US towards India. India was not on cards viz-a-viz US strategies in the Asia were concerned. The India was defined as a great power in civilizational terms (beautifully narrated by Jaswant Singh in his book Defending India) which was looking for achieving that status.
It is a well known fact that before colonial period it does contribute 23 percent of world’s GDP. Therefore, what India was looking to achieve was not irrational. India since its independence was looking to be recognized as a great power which is oftenly defined from civilizational terms. But it has never been able to make that. Some analysts believe that one of the reasons of India’s nuclear bomb was to make that recognition.
After the fall of Soviet Union things dramatically changed in the bilateral Indo-US relations. One of the reasons why US changed its policies in post Cold War period was India’s economic liberalization. It is a well known fact that US is good with business as the policies in Washington are mainly constructed from the prism of liberal neocons. The Indo-US bilateral engagements from last two decades are highly accelerated which are least identifiable in other bilateral relation in the world. The elephant started dancing for US only after India started its economic liberalization. The LPG (liberalization, privatization and globalization) approach pleased the American’s as business is always prominent attraction to please US. Since then things have gone quickly in the bilateral relation.
The Kargil War gave a last flip to the Indo-US relations. The US condemned the Pakistan on Kargil issue and this lead subsequent successful visit of US then President Bill Clinton to India in 2000. This visit of US president opened the closed gates in the bilateral relations.
After the Bill Clinton the Indo-US relations heralded during the tenure of G. Bush presidency. Mr. Bush resolved in 2001, after assuming the office, that the character of Indo-US bilateral relationship will be altered in most fundamental manner. He made a lofty point that India and US are two ‘natural allies’. The main attributes of ‘natural allies’ were shared values of pluralism, democracy and toleration.
In 2001 Bush-Atal Bihari Vajpayee meeting signed Next Step in Strategic Partnership on four important areas viz. civil nuclear energy, space programme, missile defense and trade. The strategic partnership gave a new direction to the bilateral relations. The next biggest milestone in the bilateral relations was Indo-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement signed by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Singh and US President George Bush in 2005.
The Bush-Singh period was golden era in the Indo-US relations. The chemistry between the US president and Indian prime minister was one of the reasons of accentuated bilateral developments from strategic partnership to nuclear agreement in 2005. During the Presidency of Mr. Bush, the Indo-US bilateral relation was one of the basic priorities of Bush administration. “India needs to realize great power status”, was main argument lurking in the bilateral negotiations.
In 21st century the Indo-US relation has been defined by two popular American strategic analysts-George Perkovich and Ashley Tellis, both are associated with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington. George Perkovich, author of India’s Nuclear Bomb, while contemplating on the issue that why Washington should help India to be a great power? What India can reciprocate? He argued that India is least capable to help US for its strategic designs in the 21st century. Therefore, there are fewer prospects for bilateral engagements. On the other side Ashley Tellis, author of India: As A New Global Power, believe that it is in the interest of US to help India in becoming a global power. The fundamental reason to Tellis is that India is capable to balance the other powers in the Asia Pacific region. India is leading state in the Indian Ocean Rim and with US they can ensure the security of worlds main sea routes like Palk Street, Gulf of Mannar and broadly a Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean and as balancer Chinese Middle kingdom.
After the Bush era a honeymoon period in the bilateral relations has gone. The incumbent President of US Barak Hussain Obama has begun his Priorities with nuclear non-proliferation. He gave a famous speech at Prague which won Noble Prize for him; instead of this fact that it was all rhetoric and nothing substantial has been achieved on that account. There have been least developments in the bilateral relations during the incumbent Obama administration.
The Asia pivot-a new grand strategy of US in Asia pacific region commenced in 2008 and was seriously propagated by the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. There are many dimensions of this new strategic US policy but in its perusal India is lynchpin. One of the main targets of this US policy is dragon-the China. John Mearsheimer, the prominent scholar of realist school in international relation, underlined that ‘china rise will not be peaceful’. China’s territorial ambitions in the South and East China seas are nothing but a sort of camouflage to realize the Chinese middle kingdom. China is a prominent threat to US unilateral power in the immediate future. To balance this threat US can rely on India as it is prospective and capable in that domain.
Some recent episodes have made bilateral relation quite miserable. It was actually the Indian Nuclear Liability Bill which infuriated US policy makers as they were expecting big business deals from the bilateral nuclear agreement. We have seen how India succumbed to US pressure on earlier occasions particularly on Iranian nuclear issue. But, after the Devyani Khobragade strip search affair in US (a pure racist behavior and this is how they feel about the ‘orient’), things have substantially changed. India has not supported recent resolution brought by US and its European allies in United Nations Human Rights Council on Tamil issue in Srilanka. The next refusal to US policy was India’s silent move to favor its all weather friend Russia on annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. It remains to be seen that how the Indo-US bilateral relations will move in the coming days. But one thing is clear that dance between the Elephant and the Eagle won’t be so easy.
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