India’s New Grammar of Global Balancing

R. S. Pathania rspathaniamla@gmail.com Long, long before the dogma of ‘nation-states’ came into being and states assumed boundaries, India had a civilisational, historiographical geography – Bharatvarsha-an idea extending, in the imagination of its people, from the Himalayas to the seas and through the great cultural corridors stretching towards Central Asia. It is not an argument for redrawing a modern map. It is an argument for remembering an ancient, traditional, ideological diplomatic instinct: India has historically sought engagement across civilisations rather than domination over them. The philosophical roots of that instinct delve deep. The Vedas spoke of the world as one…