India’s 21st Century Dilemma of Global Non-Alignment

Context: India’s tryst with non-alignment is still continuing as our core values and national interests leave us no choice but to take on two tech powers at the same time.

India’s tryst with Non-Alignment

• During Cold War:

• • • Central rivalry: was based on space race which was started by the Soviet by putting first satellite in orbit and retaliated by the US by placing man on the moon in 1969.
    • Founded and led the Non-Aligned Movement: aimed at maintaining national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of domination by superpowers.
    • Cost of Ideological independence: West took an undeniable toll on the development of science and technology in the country.
      • Many of the technologies shared between the allied nations were refused to India.
      • India had to build technologies from scratch.
      • Many crippling sanctions were imposed

• After Liberalization/ post-cold war:

• • • Regaining lost ground: Growing Indian software industry and large internal consumer market phenomenal in the growth of e-commerce has helped India.

• Current Scenario: 

• Resurgence of Cold War: The tech rivalry between the US and China specially over the dominance of cognitive technologies has again placed into the dilemma of non-alignment.

• Dilemma faced by India:

• On one hand, India’s liberal, democratic tradition makes it naturally aligned with the US values in AI development – issues related to privacy and AI ethics.
• On the other hand, India’s population demographics and history of economic development suggests the path of technological development to be similar to China.

• Challenging both the powers at the same time:

• Territorial disputes in Kashmir makes long-term cooperation between India and China unlikely.
• India’s emphasis on data localization has attracted US’s animosity.
• Banning of the 59 Chinese apps by India due to Chinese aggression.

Conclusion: A This is not the first time India has chosen the path of non-alignment. But never before have we taken the fight to the dominant powers of the world in quite this manner.