Viewing India’s foreign policy debate from outside the capital has its uses. Distance makes it easier to see how starkly arguments are drawn in Delhi, and how quickly the actual constraints on Indian policy disappear from view.

Today, the sharpest criticism of Indian foreign policy is that it has tilted in the wrong direction: too deferential to Washington, too comfortable in its signalling towards Israel, and too ready to adapt under American pressure, while underestimating the wider signal this sends.

That criticism comes in three broad forms: dependence, asymmetry, and signalling. The dependence argument is that Delhi increasingly trims policy, to remain within an American comfort zone.

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