S Jaishankar’s book, ‘Why Bharat Matters’ explores evolution of foreign policy in Modi era

KP Nayar

S Jaishankar’S new book, ‘Why Bharat Matters’, is a four-dimensional work on the evolution of India’s foreign policy in the last decade.

One dimension of the book constitutes an unemotional, dispassionate picture of the world today, a neutral analysis of its complications and their effects on India. The second dimension flows out of a lament that pundits, tied by convention, in the author’s estimation, are unable to break the mould in comprehending recent changes in India’s external affairs. As an attempt to bridge that gap, the book prompts the reader to go beyond the polemics in today’s India which has destroyed the country’s long-standing consensus on foreign policy. The third dimension is an attempt to be the diplomat-communicator. “The burden of communicating (now) falls on the actual participants” in statecraft, Jaishankar argues.

During most of Independent India’s history, specialist writers on diplomacy in the country’s media explained to readers how foreign policy was formulated. And they reasoned why. In recent years, many distinguished members of the tribe that engaged in this exercise have died. Conversely, many of those who lead today’s media industry have lost interest in any insightful analysis. There is little effort to nurture new or young talent for the long haul. An unfortunate spin-off of this has been that those in government who used to substantively communicate on policy have stopped doing so. When there is no demand, supply stops. Jaishankar belongs to a generation that is used to regular explanations of transformations — in his case, changes in foreign policy — and debates flowing from them. In the absence of any more of such free-flowing public discourse, one dimension of the book is akin to a news analysis relating to the author’s 47-year-long experiences as a diplomat.

The fourth dimension — rarely attempted in India before in diplomatic writing — is to present foreign policy frames of reference through the lens of Hindu mythology. ‘Why Bharat Matters’ is interspersed with interpretations and perspectives of contemporary foreign policy drawing from the Ramayana. Whether the publisher persuaded the author to take advantage of the frenzied fanfare and the frenetic celebrations connected with the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya as an opportunity for promoting the book, only these two men can tell. In terms of a timely and topical launch of this book, it has certainly worked. As a Malayali, who did not grow up on tales from the Ramayana but instead on stories about sage Parashurama and Lord Ayyappan of Sabarimala, Jaishankar’s foreign policy perspectives through the optics of Ramayana have been ethnically instructive for this reviewer.

The risk in attempting a book of this genre is that it is too close to the events it primarily deals with. An exceptionally volatile international environment and a continuous stream of unforeseen developments — the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the Hamas-Israel flare-up are examples — have heightened the possibility of analyses going grievously wrong. One example is the Narendra Modi government’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy to convince immediate neighbours of the benefits of closer ties. “This is essentially what we have seen unfold since 2014,” writes Jaishankar. This was true when the author was writing those words, but the Maldives is one example of how ground situations can suddenly change. Another example is how yesterday’s “termites” across India’s eastern borders have become today’s best friends. Ties with Hindu Nepal are not the best either. The author argues that at the core of India’s thinking of the world today is its immediate neighbourhood. As a policy prescription in the event of Modi returning to power later this year, this is heartening. But the next government has to make that happen on the ground.

The best part of the book is its deep sense of realism about India’s domestic standing as well as its external affairs. The ruling party’s army of trolls will not like what Jaishankar writes on this score. “In 2015, PM Narendra Modi publicly articulated India’s quest to become a global power one day. Some treated it as a statement of arrival when it was actually meant to be an expression of an aspiration… In 2023, the same thinking was reiterated by the PM in a determination to emerge as the third largest global economy.” The author says these are works in progress. In giving a detailed account of his personal interactions with Modi from 2011, when the author was Ambassador in China — Modi was visiting Beijing — the picture that emerges is of a Prime Minister whose feet are firmly on the ground and his head on the right angle of his shoulders. That is immensely reassuring given the opacity in the present government. That matters to Bharat as much as why Bharat matters to the world.