One of the main themes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration since 2014 has been the campaign to “decolonize” the Indian mind. For his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), rooted in India’s nationalist culture, it has been a long-standing goal to rid itself of the deep linguistic, cultural and intellectual legacy of British rule and Western influence. Modi has been diligent in pursuing this goal.
Yet the desire at home to discard the British Indian heritage has been accompanied by an impressive and successful push to change relations with the Anglo-Saxon world: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, England, and the United States.
One of the main themes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration since 2014 has been the campaign to “decolonize” the Indian mind. For his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), rooted in India’s nationalist culture, it has been a long-standing goal to rid itself of the deep linguistic, cultural and intellectual legacy of British rule and Western influence. Modi has been diligent in pursuing this goal.
Yet the desire at home to discard the British Indian heritage has been accompanied by an impressive and successful push to change relations with the Anglo-Saxon world: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, England, and the United States.
In doing so, the BJP has reversed the liberal script of post-colonial India. While the Modi government—along with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist movement of which the BJP is a political arm—opposed the English language and its broader colonial legacy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh praised English and British institutions for their contribution to the rise of modern India in 2005 Oxford lecture.
It was not the kind of speech that many of Singh’s colleagues in the Indian National Congress, which has a long political tradition of anti-Westernism, would have given. Publicly, India’s left-liberal intellectuals have always been preoccupied with the politics and economic system of the “imperialist” Anglosphere. But it also celebrated English art and letters. Many continue to pride themselves on being recognized in the Anglosphere as a major marker of success.
The BJP has flipped the rules: While its decolonization agenda at home seeks to sever remaining cultural ties, the government is promoting political and economic integration with the English-speaking world. Under the posturing of right and left, however, the middle classes in India have voted with their feet in unreservedly embracing the Anglo-Saxons. The English-speaking world has been the primary focus of their external engagement; they have used every opportunity to study, work, and live there.
Large numbers of overseas Indians abroad Persian Gulf are in the Anglosphere. They have flourished professionally and increased political stature in their adopted countries. The political classes of the Hindu right and the liberal left continue to send their children to the top universities of the Anglosphere. This may seem hypocritical. But it also represents lasting bonds between post-colonial India and the English-speaking world, whose long-suppressed economic and geopolitical integration is now coming into play.
The tension between ideological hatred of the Anglosphere and seeking good relations with it has run through the Modi administration since 2014. In his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort in Delhi in August 2022, Modi. he promised remove every trace of “colonial thinking.” He has abandoned the official use of English and, although his mother tongue is Gujarati, he has fully promoted Hindi—at the top of the Hindutva agenda. His government has increasingly replaced the original “India” and “Bharat” in official communications.
The campaign has moved beyond renaming roads, monuments, and colonial-era laws and is now moving toward reforming the armed forces, which are steeped in the traditions of the early years of the British Raj. In June, the Indian Army released a new guide a dress code that removes what it calls remnants of colonial rule—for example, by introducing traditional indigenous clothing such as the closed neck. others coat.
Part of the campaign must be modern. Some of it is pure political posturing—as such removed of the bust of Edwin Lutyens, the royal architect of New Delhi, from the presidential palace, one of Lutyens’ greatest works.
Yet Modi has also been at the forefront of rethinking relations with the Anglosphere. Addressing the United States Congress in June 2016, he he announced that India had overcome “historical reluctance” in dealing with the United States. This was no fluke: After coming to power, Modi pushed the Indian bureaucracy and political class to seize opportunities presented by Washington. Since then he has been able to relationship stability through the turmoil of President Donald Trump’s second term. This has not been easy amid sharp accusations by Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress party, that Modi surrender to Trump.
The reach of Anglo-Saxon Mode has not been limited to the United States. Australia has been a top priority for Modi, and he certainly appreciated it rockstar reception given to him during his visit to Australia in early July. From Melbourne, Modi traveled to Auckland, the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to New Zealand in 40 years. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, in a gesture of respect, was at the airport to welcome Modi. Luxon has pushed for rapid approval of free trade agreement that Wellington signed with New Delhi in April.
On July 15, India-England free trade agreementthe most comprehensive trade agreement that New Delhi has ever concluded, came into force. This was the product of India’s unprecedented political investment in traditional relations with London. In addition, Canadian and Indian negotiators concluded their the third round trade talks in Ottawa earlier this month. Prime Minister Mark Carney hopes that the agreement will be ready to be signed when Modi trip to Ottawa at the end of this year.
At the same time, a senior American official said that there is justice 1 percent of the work that remains to be done before the India-US interim trade agreement is finalized. The United States is India’s most important trading partner, with total trade in goods and services now almost up to 250 billion dollars. Modi and Trump want to push it $500 billion by the end of this decade.
While India’s foreign policy community talks a lot about “many interactions,” New Delhi’s closest and fastest growing engagement today is with the so-called Anglosphere. The irony is hard to miss: At a time when India’s domestic discourse is being deliberately infused with anti-colonial ambitions, the Indian state is closer to the successor states of the British Empire than at any time since independence.
In retrospect, though, the separation between India and the Anglo-Saxon powers was a historical problem arising from a specific context—the chaotic decolonization and division of the continent, the Anglo-American orientation towards Pakistan, and India’s orientation towards socialism with the Soviet Union. The tension between the states did not stop the growing relationship between the elites. The disapproval of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru did not come in the way of his decision to keep India in the British Commonwealth, and the English-speaking Indian middle class remained a living layer of the Anglosphere even at the height of the Cold War.
The economic reforms of 1991 created the context to rediscover the synergy. After decades of unsuccessful attempts at economic cooperation with China and Asia, India has turned to its traditional Anglo-Saxon allies. India, which began its free trade efforts with Asian nations, pulled out of negotiations for an Asia-wide free trade agreement, the Comprehensive Regional Economic Partnership, in 2019. Since then, India’s trade diplomacy has been focused on the West, including not only the Anglosphere but also the European Union and the European Free Trade Area.
Under the new commercial power is the successful Indian diaspora in the Anglo-Saxon world. The recent prime minister of Britain and vice president of the United States of Indian origin were only a reflection of the growing Indian diaspora in the world of Anglo-Saxon politics. This is compared to the large increase of Indians in the world of academia, media and business.
Is Modi a break from indigenous traditions over India? On the face of it, Modi is not alone in mending India’s relationship with the Anglosphere – ironically, even the RSS is starting to do so. Unlike India’s internationally embedded liberal left, the RSS and BJP have had little exposure to global political networks, and are now trying to change that. From the initial goal of awakening the Indian diaspora, they are now seeking develop broader relationships in the English-speaking world, including agriculture local scholars. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is present expected in the United States and Canada later this year to strengthen cooperation with the Anglosphere.
All this is not to say that India’s relationship with the Anglosphere has been without problems. Diaspora politics in the Anglosphere will continue to create friction in Indian relations, thanks to powerful interactions where domestic political controversies in India become issues in the diaspora, drawing in the political classes and governments of the host country. One sign that things could be going better came on July 7, when the US and Canadian authorities presented coordination charge against several members of Indian criminal groups, including some related to the killing of a Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023. The move was supported by intelligence cooperation with Indian agencies; usefully, the indictment does not allege any role for the Indian government in ordering the killings.
As a great civilization that emerged from colonialism and partition, India was perhaps destined to turn away from the Anglosphere after independence. But the inherent logic of cooperation could not be ignored forever. India could not embrace the English-speaking world as a recipient of the country’s terms and conditions, but India’s continued anti-imperialist rhetoric could finally be fulfilled by a new pact based on common interests among free equals. Surely a rising and self-confident India can find a new and mutually beneficial modus vivendi with the Anglosphere.
