India: A Major Power in the Making

Abstract

India is a major power in the making. In this chapter, I assess India’s power and status at the regional and global levels. I argue that it has the capabilities of and is accorded the status of a limited hegemon at the regional (South Asian) level. The nature of this limited hegemony has changed since the 1990s, from a relatively aggressive to a relatively benign role in the region, which has brought it growing but still incomplete acceptance from within the region. This has been facilitated by its rising profile at the global level, where it is increasingly recognized as a significant player by the sole superpower, the United States—an attribution that lowers India’s costs as a power at both the regional and global levels. On the latter plane, India has exhibited a relatively limited capacity and willingness to influence developments via traditional modes of power politics, but has been active in reshaping the politics of military and nonmilitary regime formation and development. In terms of both capabilities and status attribution, it is status-consistent as a major regional power and as a global power in the making. It has limited autonomous capabilities at the global level and is not in the near term expected—either by itself or by others—to play a major role in shaping the world except in conjunction with other powers in the restricted arena of international regimes. As such, it is neither likely to generate significant tensions within the system nor to play the role of a major stabilizer should systemic tensions appear.