Dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ. These three words loosely translated from Sanskrit mean Dharma protects those that protect it. We live in complicated times, Bharat’s identity as a global power is being defined in these years. From a developing country to the world’s fifth largest economy, India has made a huge leap in the last 10 years. Challenges abound, but India’s is the world’s most populous country and the world’s largest democracy. This means that the government is answerable to every individual citizen, a responsibility that Prime Minister Modi takes very seriously.
Globally now Bharat matters. It is the most coveted nation in the world like it was in the 1700’s. Its growing economy, its young educated English speaking manpower and its youth all make it desirable. It is fundamental for the west as a growing market. Due to China and Xi Jinping’s repressive policies, it is developing as an alternative “friend-shoring” destination as well.
Doing business in India is still tough, corruption is still high, an early monsoon has brought a lot of the newly built infrastructure to its knees, only 1.6% of Indians pay taxes and political parties promise more free incentives to the 98.4% that don’t. Several categories need immediate reform, starting with agriculture as around half of the country still depends on agriculture for sustenance. After 55 years of no reform, the farm bills which were much needed in the sector were introduced. PM Modi had to withdraw the reform, given harsh opposition from a small cross section of well organized and well funded “farmers”.
Despite its challenges India’s star is on the rise in global geopolitics. It has a 4000 km land border with China. China has the ambition of becoming the world’s most powerful country and its largest economy. The Indian peninsula juts into the Indian Ocean, capable of holding China hostage given most of the important shipping lanes of energy from the gulf to southeast asia pass through India’s Exclusive Economic Zones- from the Lakshadweep islands and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It has moved to the centre of the Indo-Pacific and the Indo-Mediterranean. From the Gulf of Aden as ships exit from the Bab al Mandab right upto their passage into the Malacca strait, India remains the key power in the area. Despite losing land access to Afghanistan, it tries to maintain its strategic depth in central asia through Chabahar. Whether the India-Middle East-Africa economic corridor or the International North South Trade corridor, it is trying to build consensus in trade routes rather than impose them like China does with its Belt and Road Initiative.
India’s foreign policy has evolved over the 10 years of the Modi government. From “neighborhood first”, where it has continued to give priority to maintaining its primacy among its smaller neighbors to Security and Growth for all in the reason (SAGAR), India’s foreign policy is slowly maturing as it takes its first steps as a global power. It is a part of the China controlled Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and continues to maintain its relevance in BRICS. At the same time it has actively revived the Quad to counter China in the Indo-Pacific, regularly attends the G7 and has developed strong defense relationships with the west.
Bharat has also proudly created a narrative, rebranding its non-alignment. 19th-century British statesman and Prime Minister Lord Palmerston apparently once said: “There are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends, only permanent interests”. Bharat has brought in Ramayana and Mahabharata to explain its new geopolitical stance. Its position on Russia and Ukraine, where it continues talking to both parties and tries and calls for peace. A very Sri Krishna-like stance in a war between brothers.
It secretly arms Israel and supports the elimination of the Islamic brotherhood sponsored Hamas, like it should, while formally supporting the two state solution. Another Sri Krishna inspired move of pushing Karna’s wheel into the mud so that Arjuna could fulfill his dharma. In the delicate global battlefield of Kuruskhetra, India is taking the role of the observer. The one who does not act.
But Bharat is not Sri Krishna, it is a country which is destined to its own karma. Its role is more that of Arjuna who follows the direction of his Krishna to protect dharma. That word again. In its recent evolution from vishwa-guru, to viswāmitra to vishwa bandhu, there are two words that Bharat and its leaders must constantly remember while trying to do what they must. Karma and Dharma. Bharat can realize its own destiny only if it acts, if it takes sides, and to do so it must abide by dharma. Dharma must be a fundamental and non-negotiable condition of India’s foreign policy.
“Dharma eva hato hanti dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ | tasmād dharmo na hantavyaḥ pārthivena viśeṣataḥ” is the full shloka from the Mahābharata where the motto of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) is taken. It means “He who sacrifices virtue (dharma) is himself destroyed. And he that preserves it is himself preserved. I, therefore, do not sacrifice virtue, considering that if destroyed, it will destroy us”. It is mentioned three times in the Mahābharata. Yato Dharmastato Jayah (“Where there is Dharma, there will be Victory”) is mentioned 13 times and happens to be the motto of India’s supreme court.
The importance of dharma, duty, is not transient, it does not change with the circumstance or with interests. The Pandavas stood their ground to protect dharma, losing all their children, cousins, loved ones. The Mahabharata teaches us that at times the price of protecting dharma could be our own sanity and survival, however it is the upholding of dharma and the protecting the weak and the good that is our primary duty.
As Sri Krishna said in the gita
Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
Abhyuthanam Adharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham[….] sambhavami yuge yuge
which was translated by Swami Vivekananda to “Whenever virtue subsides and wickedness prevails, I manifest Myself. To establish virtue, to destroy evil, to save the good, I come from Yuga (age) to Yuga.”
As Prime Minister Modi’s third term takes birth and Bharat moves to becoming Visvabandhu, the importance of dharma in Bharat’s foreign policy and the courage to tell truth to power is non-negotiable. Pax Indiana has begun and in India’s golden age it is essential that it stand against all evil. If that evil may be a strategic old friend or a necessary ally, Bharat must be a voice for the weak and the good and not just the Global South. It must speak for the oppressed and the vulnerable because only there is dharma and only in dharma is victory and glory.
