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The Irrepressibles tame the Invincibles in their impregnable fortress

Bliss it was to be a cricket aficionado in Australia at dusk yesterday as the shadows lengthened at the Gabba and the players were bathed in soft golden sunlight. To be an Indian fan was pure heaven. We are resigned to heartaches as a staple diet. But once in a while, the gods smile, all is good in

By Ramesh Thakur

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Australia’s Pacific Step-up and the Quad

The growing synergy among the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue powers of Australia, Japan, the United States and India has provided a crucial impetus to the security architecture of the Indo-Pacific. Bilateral ties between these four states have also seen positive growth, largely a result of “like-

By Eerishika Pankaj

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India launches its mammoth vaccine drive

India officially launches its Covid vaccination program tomorrow (16 January) in a major logistical exercise aiming to inoculate hundreds of millions of people. And with it, the hustle begins. India, just like China, will be looking to leverage the diplomatic benefit of its ability to manufacture

By Aarti Betigeri

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Putting the caste system in its place

During an end of year break, The Interpreter is again featuring select articles published throughout 2020. This piece was originally published on 18 November 2020. Watchers of the Netflix show Indian Matchmaking might have missed it, but for Indian viewers attuned to what goes unsaid

By Aarti Betigeri

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Can Modi calm the farm?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always been coated in Teflon: the kinds of policies and actions that would have brought down other leaders have barely left a dent in his impeccably tailored vests. But as it turns out, there is a chink in his armour: farmers. Specifically, 250 million of

By Aarti Betigeri

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India’s farmers take on Modi

In one of the coldest winters in recent memory, and in the midst of a global pandemic, farmers from Punjab and Haryana, in their thousands, have laid siege to the Indian capital, New Delhi. Braving cold winds, water cannons, baton charges, tear gas, barbed wire and the heavy-handed might of the

By Edmond Roy

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India heads towards economic autarky

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar this week made the clearest statement yet that India intends to head back down the road of economic autarky – for strategic reasons. This would represent a U-turn on almost 30 years of trade liberalisation, with profound effects for India’s role

By David Brewster

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India: Trolls from a Hindu nationalist fringe with a majority complex

A recent television commercial aired in India by jewellery brand Tanishq triggered an explosion of outrage among right-wing Hindu nationalist supporters in India, raising concerns about a growing religious polarisation in the country. The ad, meant to promote a new collection called “

By Roshni Kapur, Nazneen Mohsina

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Rebirth of the quadrilateral Malabar: Promises and portents for India

Lying at the south-eastern extremity of the Indian peninsula, the Malabar is a serene, idyllic region at the confluence of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. This region was once the historical gateway for maritime trade between India and the rest of the world, until the

By Prakash Gopal

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A real-life Bollywood soap opera, with a political twist

When things get grim in India, the usual way of dealing with it is to look towards Bollywood for some distracting relief. This time, however, it’s not the latest musical providing distraction, but rather the imbroglio over the suicide of a popular movie actor, which was blamed on his girlfriend

By Aarti Betigeri

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India-Australia security relations: They’ve only just begun

The Quad – the grouping comprised of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States – held its first stand-alone foreign ministerial meeting this month in Tokyo. In the words of one Australian analyst, the grouping that once faltered and restarted with a crawl now finally stands on its two feet

By Dhruva Jaishankar

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A third aircraft carrier for India: Budget versus necessity

The Indian military is undergoing what may be its most significant reorganisation since India’s independence, with considerable implications for its future strategic posture. One important issue that has been brought to the fore is the role of the Indian Navy as a regional power projection force

By M Matheswaran

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Bangladesh’s balancing act between great powers

Recently in a tweet, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi complained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “has destroyed the web of relationships that the Congress built and nurtured over several decades”. He then added rather vaguely that “living in a neighbourhood with no friends is dangerous

By Mubashar Hasan, Arild Engelsen Ruud

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A Quad of consequence: Balancing values and strategy

What makes the Quad foreign ministers conversation this week in Tokyo consequential? Probably the strategic setting – a pandemic, global economic contraction and an accelerated Sino-US strategic competition on one hand, and rising regional tensions from the Himalayas to the South China Sea and

By Titli Basu

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COVIDcast: Wolf warriors in the age of Covid, with Shivshankar Menon and Richard McGregor

In this episode of COVIDcast, Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow, sat down with Shivshankar Menon to discuss the latest currents in Chinese foreign policy, particularly its tense border stand-off with India

By Richard McGregor

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China-India: Talk is cheap, but never free

There is no end in sight for the ongoing China-India border crisis. In June, China and India’s border dispute along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) resumed after a decades-long halt to the fighting, with the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of casualties on the Chinese side

By Oriana Skylar Mastro

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Working together on relief can stop a China‑India border disaster

The relative stability along the China-India borders since the Doklam standoff in 2017 has been upended this year by the outbreak of two skirmishes, in May and August. The tensions have added to the challenges facing the two countries. India has seen a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases recently and

By Lina Gong

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India puts relations with Japan back on the rails

Arguably the greatest, most visible and most impactful legacy of the British Raj in India is the train network that criss-crosses the country. So it perhaps comes as little surprise that India’s favourite regional friend is shoring up their relationship by investing heavily in, yes, more trains

By Aarti Betigeri

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The Australia–India Strategic Partnership: Accelerating Security Cooperation in the Indo–Pacific

Shared concerns about China's rise have propelled Australia and India to deepen their security ties

By Dhruva Jaishankar

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Tackling environmental security threats in the Indian Ocean

The explosion and fire on board a supertanker off Sri Lanka this month, following closely on last month’s disastrous oil spill in Mauritius, serve as a reminder that environmental security threats are front and centre of security concerns among many Indian Ocean states. This issue will become only

By David Brewster

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The delusion of India trying to throttle China’s maritime trade

The current phase of the Sino-Indian border conflict which began in May this year may go on for quite some time. India seems to be hunkering down for a long winter. Given the relative symmetries in strength ranged across the Himalayan border, there has long been talk in New Delhi of exploiting

By Sudarshan Y. Shrikhande

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Kashmir, a year on from the change

It has been a little over a year since the Indian government under Narendra Modi curtailed the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir by revoking Article 370 of the Indian constitution. The article had given the state a certain degree of autonomy, including its own flag, constitution and freedom to enact

By Roshni Kapur

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The Democrat and the world’s biggest democracy

Given the high degree of political participation by the South Asian diaspora in the US that I’ve written about before, it seemed an inevitability that a person with some degree of Indian ethnicity or culture would make it onto a presidential ticket. The question was never if, but who. Would it be

By Aarti Betigeri

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Which side would the US public choose in an India-China conflict?

The recent military standoff between India and China in the Galwan Valley raises a fascinating question about the attitudes of the American public towards Asia’s great powers. We know from extensive polling that the American people are increasingly sour about China. A March 2020 survey by the

By Vasabjit Banerjee, Timothy S. Rich

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India-China relations and the geopolitics of water

The Tibetan plateau is often called the “Third Pole”, owing to its glacial expanses and vast reserves of freshwater. For as many as nine countries in the surrounding region, the status of rivers emerging from the plateau is a key concern. China has claimed express ownership over Tibet’s

By Ameya Pratap Singh, Urvi Tembey

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Modi’s pandemic gambit

As the world tries to make sense of the daily debacle of Donald Trump’s response to Covid-19, there’s another democratically elected leader moving in a similar trajectory. India’s Narendra Modi, the man who 15 weeks ago placed his country’s 1.3 billion people under lockdown, is today

By Edmond Roy

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Interesting times for TikTok

From Delhi to Washington to Canberra, the future of the digital economy may be heavily influenced by how one question is answered: What to do about TikTok? The popular short-video platform owned by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance has been at the centre of a storm of controversy. Concern

By Elliott Zaagman

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India, Australia and containing the China challenge

Australia’s strategy on engaging India has long revolved around the so-called “three Cs”: cricket, curry and the Commonwealth. In light of the changing status of bilateral relations in 2020, let’s add a couple more Cs to the list: China, and containment of. On Friday, it emerged that

By Aarti Betigeri

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Twisting India’s Chicken’s Neck

Indian officials claim that China is continuing its build-up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between India and China in the Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh region. New satellite imagery supports the claim that not only is the People’s Liberation Army holding ground

By Syed Fazl-e-Haider

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India-China conflict: A move from the Himalayas to the high seas?

Last month’s clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh was the most significant conflict between the two countries since 1967. Despite signs of a partial tactical pullback in some places, there is considerable risk of further confrontations and even escalation along the disputed border.

By David Brewster

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India’s dilemma: Neither strategic nor autonomous

The recent China-India clash in the Himalaya provides India with a dilemma: can it continue to pursue its long-desired aim of achieving “strategic autonomy”? India has never wanted to be beholden to any other nation. Formerly called “non-alignment”, this policy has become multi-bipolarity

By Christopher Snedden

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Calling out “expansionism”: The Modi way

India’s message to China is loud and clear: expansionism is outdated. In a decisive move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi choose to make the point right from the heart of Ladakh – the scene of violent face-off in Galwan Valley last month that claimed 20 lives in a “pre-meditated and planned

By Titli Basu

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Economic diplomacy: Diversification dilemmas

Costing the D word Diversification might be the word of the moment in the lexicon of Australian trade debate, even though few advocates make much attempt to explain how it will actually work. But now we have two interesting efforts to quantify just how selected reductions in trade with China in

By Greg Earl

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India’s TikTok stars collateral damage in Chinese app ban

Indians have been very enthusiastic users of all forms of social media, but TikTok has found them to be an especially eager audience. With 660 million downloads of the app and more than 120 million active users, India represents TikTok’s biggest foreign market. The short-video platform

By Aarti Betigeri

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Australians look to India more – and don’t always like what they see

A lack of trust from the Australian population towards India is probably the last thing the Morrison government wants right now, as it seeks to shore up its relationship with its Indian Ocean neighbour. But a lack of trust it is: according to the 2020 Lowy Institute Poll, just 45% of Australians

By Aarti Betigeri

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Australia should support India in the Himalayas

The conflict between India and China on their disputed Himalayan border may be an important turning point in their relationship. Australia should take the opportunity to show firm support for India over the issue. Last week’s fighting between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh was the bloodiest

By David Brewster

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Lessons from the India-China border clashes

The India-China border clash on the night of 15 June, the worst in over half a century, is nothing less than a chapter break in the relationship between the two countries. A dynamic that was, at the best of times, fraught with mutual suspicion is now on the cusp of becoming downright adversarial.

By Abhijnan Rej

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India-China: Pressure at altitude

Even before the shocking events of 15 June, in which at least 20 Indian soldiers died along with an unknown number of their Chinese counterparts, it was clear to some that this year’s shadow boxing on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was different. In late May, the respected Indian defence

By Ian Hall

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Diego Garcia: India’s conundrum

The tug-of-war between the United Kingdom and Mauritius over Chagos archipelago – and the US military base on Diego Garcia – is hotting up. In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution which endorsed a non binding decision from the International Court of Justice that

By Abhijit Singh

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Kashmir Covid response sparks fear and suspicion

India’s high-handedness in Kashmir amid a global pandemic has further exacerbated a tense situation in the restive valley. The latest causality of harsh policies has been people, mostly students, locked up in quarantine centres across Kashmir. In March, when Kashmiri students studying outside

By Sheikh Saqib

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Seizing the chance to chart “The India Way”

A Chinese proverb holds that “the beginning of wisdom is calling things by the right name”. For those of us in New Delhi, it is refreshing to see India actively pitch its Covid-19 diplomacy to articulate “The India Way” in global conversations. What this means in practical terms is a

By Shruti Pandalai

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In India and Africa, women farmers lack land rights

In October 2016, women from across the African continent met at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with a charter of demands pushing for women’s right to use, control, own, inherit and dispose land. The Women2Kilimanjaro hike’s demand for more inclusive land rights proved not to be in

By Vani Swarupa Murali

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India-Australia strategic partnership: Leveraging aerospace capacity

The forthcoming virtual summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison assumes considerable significance for an India-Australia strategic partnership, particularly as it comes against the backdrop of heightened friction with China for both countries.

By M Matheswaran

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Who really killed the Quad 1.0?

The tale has become accepted diplomatic folklore. In the telling, it was Australia, back in 2008 in the early days of the Rudd government, that decided to scuttle the then-nascent Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the four-way talks also involving Japan, the United States and India. To compound

By Daniel Flitton

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Prospects for closer strategic ties between India and Australia

China’s rise and assertive behaviour has been a source of concern to both India and Australia. While India prioritises its territorial disputes with China and China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean, Australia is concerned about growing tensions in Sino-US relations and the undesirable

By Biren Nanda

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The local cost of rising India-China tensions

India-China tensions have recently escalated at two Himalayan flashpoints: Ladakh and Sikkim. On 5 May, scuffles broke out between Chinese and Indian soldiers near Pangong Tso, a lake that straddles the border in Ladakh. At the same time, there were skirmishes near Nathu La, a mountain pass that

By Alexander Davis, Ruth Gamble

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The Trump card in the Sino-Indian rivalry?

As worrying details about the month-long India-China border dispute continue to pour in, Donald Trump, in his signature style, has muddied waters in two significant ways. First, on Wednesday morning, he tweeted: “We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and

By Abhijnan Rej

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Push India towards the Quad to deter China

A four-country bulwark against Beijing's regional dominance is an idea whose time has come. To make it work, New Delhi must be convinced to join in. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Lavina Lee

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Islands of opportunity: Where India and Australia can work together

As India and Australia prepare for a virtual summit next month between prime ministers amid the coronavirus pandemic, a possible strategic initiative could involve the cooperative use of their respective island territories in the Indian Ocean for strategic purposes. India’s Andaman and Nicobar

By Darshana Baruah

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The tangled web of India-China relations

The present phase of India-China relations emerged from the desire and imperative to reset relations after the Doklam standoff in 2017 and the realisation that, despite the persistence of major differences between them, India and China have significant areas of cooperation both in the bilateral and

By Biren Nanda

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