A new book traces the evolution of India’s ambition to become a centre of geopolitical power

A geopolitical pole is a country that serves as an independent centre of influence in the international system. It can shape decisions, attract partnerships and pursue its interests without simply following another power. For India, the idea matters because it represents a long-delayed claim to a rightful place in world politics.

The claim rests on two foundations. India’s stronger material base and diplomatic breathing space have reduced earlier feelings of constraint. Its historical primacy in South Asia also gives it a regional platform. New Delhi presents itself as central to its own regional subsystem and as a voice for the Global South.

Today, India cultivates this status through the G20, Quad, SCO, BRICS and Global South diplomacy. The article describes current systemic chaos as an opportunity rather than only a threat. If this effort continues, India’s influence could become more distinct, while its regional leadership remains central to its wider global ambitions.

The source does not specify which industries, growth rates or economic policies created India’s stronger material base. It also does not identify particular diplomatic agreements that produced greater freedom. Instead, it describes a broad change in India’s capabilities and international room for manoeuvre since the turn of the millennium.

That change matters because earlier “postcolonial insignificance” and external “disciplinary pressures” had constrained New Delhi. The article says those pressures have dramatically diminished. A stronger material base gives India greater capacity to support ambitions, while diplomatic breathing space allows it to engage more confidently across competing forums.

The result is a shift in strategic outlook. India no longer sees global systemic chaos only as danger. It increasingly treats disorder as an opportunity to assert influence. The article presents this confidence, rather than any single economic statistic or diplomatic event, as the foundation for pursuing pole status.

The source does not measure South Asia’s population, territory, economy or military weight, so its exact scale cannot be established from the article. It does show why the region matters strategically: India’s self-image as a pole is rooted in its core-periphery relationship with South Asia and the Indian Ocean region.

India’s regional role supplies both material and ideational foundations. New Delhi has maintained a distinct sphere of influence in South Asia and has also provided regional public goods, mainly in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. This history supports the belief that the subcontinent naturally centres on India.

The article says this conviction crosses party and ideological lines. Hindu nationalists express it through cultural ideas, while other traditions also treat India as the region’s centre. South Asian primacy therefore remains the platform from which India projects wider influence, even though the article does not quantify the region’s size.

India’s earlier strategic outlook was shaped by repeated experiences of exclusion. The freedom struggle linked independence with emerging as a great power. Colonial subjugation, racism and systemic discrimination created a lasting sense that India had been denied its rightful place. This memory became part of a broader national anxiety.

During the Cold War, concerns shifted toward economic and political discrimination and nuclear “apartheid.” In the post-Cold War period, non-interference, United States sanctions and the perceived ills of American unipolarity continued to restrict India’s room for action. These pressures reinforced a siege mindset across party divisions.

The article presents vulnerability and insecurity as constants in India’s strategic imagination. Since the turn of the millennium, however, “postcolonial insignificance” and external “disciplinary pressures” have declined. India therefore sees present systemic chaos less as a threat and more as an opportunity to pursue influence and long-held ambitions.

Hindu nationalist ideas give India’s regional leadership a civilisational meaning. They portray India not merely as the strongest state in South Asia, but as the centre of a shared Hindu cultural, religious and historical space. This deepens the emotional force of claims to regional primacy.

VD Savarkar illustrated this view in 1937 by describing Nepal as bound to “Hindudom” through common race, religion, language and culture. In 1939, he called for a consolidated state including Kashmir, Nepal, Gomantak, Pondicherry and other French possessions. He also described Nepal as a defender of the Hindu faith and a symbol of Hindu history and future.

The article distinguishes this explicitly Hindutva framing from the broader belief that India naturally centres its region. That belief also appears in Nehru’s regional policy, despite radically different reasoning. Hindu nationalism therefore supplies one political expression of a wider strategic imagination.

India strengthens its claim to influence by working through several international platforms rather than relying on one alliance. The article presents this as deliberate cultivation of pole status. Each forum gives New Delhi another setting in which to project leadership, build relationships and demonstrate diplomatic reach.

The key mechanism is calibrated engagement. India leverages its self-assumed leadership of the Global South while maintaining a presence in high-profile groupings such as the G20, Quad, SCO and BRICS. These platforms span different political and strategic groupings. Participation across them lets India pursue influence without being confined to one camp.

This approach matches India’s wider effort to gain diplomatic breathing space and confidence. It also reflects the article’s claim that current systemic chaos can create opportunity. By appearing across major forums and speaking for the Global South, New Delhi reinforces its image as a distinct pole with regional roots and broader global ambitions.

If India becomes a distinct pole, it would gain greater ability to shape international outcomes rather than react to decisions made elsewhere. The article connects pole status with India’s long-standing ambition to secure a rightful place in world politics. It also frames the achievement as a reversal of earlier postcolonial insignificance and strategic insecurity.

The first consequence would be stronger regional authority. India’s established primacy in South Asia already supports a distinct sphere of influence. Its participation in the Indian Ocean region and provision of regional public goods add practical foundations. Global forums then extend that regional platform into wider diplomacy.

The article points toward a more confident India using systemic disorder as an opportunity. A successful strategy would therefore combine regional centrality with broader influence through the Global South, G20, Quad, SCO and BRICS. It would not erase ideological divisions, but the idea of India as a central pole crosses them.