India and the World

In this episode

The connection

When news of Japan defeating Russia reached India in the early twentieth century, it gave people dreaming of independence proof that an empire could fall. Writing for Scroll.in, Mithi Mukherjee traces how that distant victory fueled a national movement. Fast forward a century, and the dynamic reverses. Instead of Indian thinkers looking outward for inspiration, the globe is now looking in. In The Diplomat, Akhilesh Pillalamarri breaks down survey data from thirty-six countries to measure what foreign citizens actually think of modern India. Putting these two ends of the timeline together reveals a striking shift—from a colony borrowing hope from the outside world, to a power the rest of the world must now make sense of.

Akhilesh Pillalamarri leaves you looking at poll numbers from 36 countries, where foreign citizens judge India based on old historical ties and new military alliances. It is a snapshot of an established global power. Read alongside Mithi Mukherjee, that modern snapshot takes on a different shade. Mukherjee winds the clock back to 1905, a time when India was not an independent player on the world stage, but a British colony. What jumps out is how the exact same concept—geopolitics—suddenly snapped into focus for Indian thinkers. While Pillalamarri tracks how the outside world views India today, Mukherjee tracks how Indian revolutionaries first started viewing the outside world. Watching Japan defeat Russia sparked a realization that geography, sea routes, and international alliances were the keys to throwing off British rule. The interesting thing is the complete reversal in perspective. A century ago, Indian writers looked at a foreign military victory and finally saw a path to their own freedom. Today, it is the rest of the world looking back at India, weighing its power and position.

A century ago, news of a distant naval battle gave a colonized people the hope to imagine their own freedom. Today, that independent nation is a global giant, being measured and judged by citizens across dozens of countries. What lingers is the sheer distance traveled between those two realities—the jump from looking outward for a spark of inspiration, to sitting squarely under the world's microscope. It leaves a quiet question to sit with. Once a country finally secures the independence it fought so hard for, does the rest of the world's approval actually matter?