Muslim world: Should it choose India over China?

Ensuring Socio-economic Justice

Crescent International

Muharram 20, 1445 2023-08-07

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

The western corporate media is full of news projecting India as a prominent global power in the emerging multipolar world order.

This perspective is based more on wishful thinking than sober analysis.

Careful examination of the claim that India is on par with Russia, China or even Iran and Türkiye on the global stage reveal this to be nothing more than a PR exercise.

There are several key factors and indicators which show that to place India in the same league as Russia or China is deeply flawed.

We will examine some fundamental variables, which exclude India from being a global player alongside such powers as China, Russia, etc.

Let us, however, briefly look at two key arguments widely used to project India’s global power status.

The first popular argument is that India has a large, young educated population.

So did the Soviet Union before its disintegration.

Historical comparisons aside, what most people ignore is that India is facing a major brain-drain.

Some may argue that this is a problem faced by many other countries.

True, but others beset by this problem do not present themselves as an up-and-coming global player competing with China or the US.

It should also be noted that in its 2022 report, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) pointed out that Indian students are the ones most likely to not return to India.

The second argument used to advance India’s important global player status is its growing middle class.

It is the nature of the middle class that it wants security for its wealth.

The middle class also wants stability.

They want predictable business cycle to enable them to continue their upward social mobility.

This is very difficult for a country like India plagued by a series of brutal internal political, ethnic, religious and tribal conflicts.

For a state entity to have significant impact on global affairs, its central government must have sovereignty within its borders.

This is not the case in India.

There are several insurgencies which greatly limit Delhi’s meaningful control over large parts of its territory.

The best known example is that of the Maoist rebellion which has raged in India for more than half a century with no end in sight at present.

From a purely economic standpoint, even proponents of the idea that India would serve as a bulwark against Beijing in order to secure western interests admit that it is far behind China.

Given these realities, the question Muslim policy-makers must consider is whether it is wise to place their geopolitical bets on India as opposed to China.

There is open geopolitical hostility between western neo-colonial regimes and China.

It is no secret that in order to contain China, the US and its surrogates are trying to form some kind of a containment alliance in Asia.

This comprises countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and India to exert economic and political pressure on China.

Naturally, the US would like to see Muslim countries join its anti-China bandwagon.

This is especially the case with Türkiye.

Mercantilist and econometric arguments aside, it would be politically unwise for any Muslim country to form relationship with India at the expense of China.

For the current Indian regime, its anti-Muslim and anti-Islam agendas are its most important internal political orientations.

For Narendra Modi, his anti-Islam policies are the primary driving force in politics.

While Beijing also pursues internally oppressive anti-Muslim policies, these are not Beijing’s primary political tool.

From a foreign policy perspective, China is actively seeking to form strategic relations with key Muslim countries where Islamic socio-political trends play an important domestic role.

India’s fascist regime not only pursues a policy of oppressing its Muslim citizens, it also seeks to undermine Islamic revival in other geographic locales.

Thus, Modi’s fascist regime cannot be a reliable ally of any Muslim country since its fundamental ideology is rooted in anti-Muslim venom that has caused grievous harm to Muslims in India.

END