IRSHAD SALIM – “Because they could not,” a Pakistani defense expert says. “Militarily, China has outpaced India by decades in key technologies.”
According to him, “any insistence on a military course would have resulted in greater embarrassment for India, which would have been then disastrous for Modi politically,” he added.
Back in October 2020, an Indian analyst’s take was that “a philosophical shift in India’s nuclear doctrine has taken place.”
“The Hindutva (Hindu State) is its apex now: On strategic level, there’s a shift from “defensive realism to offensive realism,”” he said.
What’s that? A South Asia observer based in the Middle Eastern says, “It means Modi and his team’s focus is on transforming India into a Hindu State. Hindutva appeals to their electoral base.”
“And the nukes are, in my opinion, a tactical level thing now,” the observer added.
Indian analyst Dr. Ali Ahmed was sharing his views on India’s nuclear doctrine transformation at a webinar held by Islamabad-based think tank Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS).
Here’s a short on some of Dr. Ali’s talking points:
Asia Pacific-based analyst Dr. Syed M Ali weighs in India’s Hindutva doctrine at the apex:
“The RSS/BJP has traditionally seen Hinduism – or Hindutva – as the essence of the Indian national identity which, in their view, was suppressed for centuries by Afghan, Persian, Turkic and Mughal Muslims, and more recently, by Christian Europeans. Now that all “foreign rulers” have been ousted, they wish India to become an exclusively Hindu-state. Controversially, this would lead India to ideationally accepting the two-nation theory, creating grounds for marginalizing- possibly delegitimizing and denationalizing Muslims and other minorities. Such a confessionally-defined India could transform its worldview, stabilize as a Hindu polity, and elect to live in peace with non-Hindu neighbors.
“However,” he adds, “such a state with over 200m minority citizens could not live in peace with itself. Discriminatory socio-politico-economic practices at home would ripple across its borders and possibly transform the region into “dar-ul harb”, a most unappetizing, hate-filled, anti-rational and regressive prospect for South Asia.”
“This already seems well-advanced, but as long as the USA values India as a countervailing ballast against China, India gets a free pass. And the BJP knows this.”
