By Rahul Mishra and Yanitha Meena Louis
Since its formal iteration by Prime Minister Modi at the Shangri-la dialogue in 2018, India’s Indo-Pacific policy has undergone transformative changes. Almost six years down the road, today, it is not only seen as an ambitious outreach campaign but also a tool for India’s strategic recalibration with Indo-Pacific countries. Navigating systemic and strategic constraints, a rising power India has made good attempts in both making friends and alliance building, as well as in managing intense rivalries with China and Pakistan. From a Valluvarian perspective, adeptness at balancing the complexities of super power competition and regional conflicts, can be seen as the essence of India’s Indo-Pacific gambit.
With the Tirukkural gaining prominence as more than just a didactic text, its unique value in offering insights on statecraft and diplomacy becomes evident, particularly in the realm of alliances and international relations. Within Book Two on Porutpaal (polity/wealth), numerous adhigarams (chapters) and kurals (couplets) outline the characteristics of a quintessential alliance, enabling conditions for building such alliances, and what defines a rival. In the modern context, the Kural’s explanatory power in International Relations (IR) and prescriptive power in foreign policy demonstrate its perpetual utility and ‘applied’ merit in the study of international politics.
A Kuralist perspective of India’s Indo-Pacific strategy would concentrate on the strategic relationships cultivated in the region. One of India’s pivotal strategic arrangements in the Indo-Pacific is the Quad. Revitalized in 2017, the Quad comprises Australia, Japan, and the US, in addition to India, and is seen as an informal minilateral grouping of like-minded stakeholders that aim to maintain a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific while also keeping it ‘free and open’.
The Quad, seen as a counterweight to China’s increasing assertiveness, aligns with adhigaram 68 (Vinaiseilvagai – The Offensive), kural 679, which states, “Friends are a wealth, as the saying goes; But a greater wealth are foes of foes”. Keeping in mind that the Kural is an ancient, non-nuanced text with no qualms of using explicit terms like ‘friends’ and ‘foes’ or being ‘politically incorrect’, it is here that the ‘subtlety of pragmatics’ comes to play when the Kural is applied to contemporary IR. Valluvar’s perspective portrays the Quad as a natural alliance of China’s strategic rivals. While both Tiruvalluvar and Chanakya would advocate India’s stronger military participation in Quad, New Delhi has been somewhat reluctant in making Quad a military-centric formation and wants to keep it broad-based and inclusive of initiatives that are growth and development focused. Critics also say that India is the weakest link in Quad.
However, the Kural would also interpret India’s focus on the Quad and enhanced relations with the US through adhigaram 88 (Pakhaithirantherithal – On Enmity), kural 875 which advises making an instant friend out of one foe when facing two. It says, “If you have no ally—no surprise there!—and face not one foe but two; Make one an instant friend and watch the other rue”. Despite constant and consistent affirmation from the US that “few relationships in the world are as important as that of US-India” in recent years, it is wise to remember that this was not always the case. In fact, India-US relations since the late 1990s have been erratic and complicated to say the least. In that sense, Valluvar would see India-US relations and the Quad as an instinctive move by New Delhi to make ‘one foe of two, a friend’.
While not explicitly part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, it is pertinent to mention Russia in the major power context. Russia is one of India’s most crucial regional relationships, echoing the Kural’s perspective on ‘old friendships.’ Despite strategic divergences of a fundamental nature (Russia’s alliance partnership with China and growing relationship with Pakistan, which pose existential challenges to India’s border security, and India’s membership of Quad and growing bonhomie with the US) the enduring and “familiar” nature of the India-Russia partnership is acknowledged as a “special and privileged strategic partnership”. This is well-captured in adhigaram 80 (Natparaythal – Forming Friendships), kural 792, “Befriending one you have not known in testing times; Can cause you grief; so be wise and change tack, betimes!” and adhigaram 81 (Pazhaimai – Old friendships/Familiarity), kural 803, “If friendship does not to familiarity respond; It forfeits the beauty of that bond”. These kurals underscore the wisdom of cherishing friendships forged in testing times.
That said, Tiruvalluvar would not advise India to support Russia on the Ukraine front. For Valluvar, justice and peace are bigger virtues than friendship. For instance, adhigaram 56 (Kodungkonmai – Misrule), kural 553 states, “The king who doesn’t scan the day for wrongs done in his realm; Nor spends it being just has misfortune his kingdom overwhelm”, while adhigaram 55 (Sengonmai – Just rule), kural 547 says, “The king guards his realm, yes, but who guards the king?; His sense of doing right by each and every thing.”
Beyond the Quad, India’s Act East Policy is central to its Indo-Pacific aspirations. Geared towards enhancing strategic and economic relations with Southeast Asia and countries in the wider Indo-Pacific region, this policy also feeds into New Delhi’s ultimate objective of establishing itself as a responsible and dependable regional security provider in the region. This aligns with adhigaram 80 (Natparaythal – Forming Friendships), kural 791 stressing the enduring nature of friendships beyond agreements and deals. It states, “Friendships are not deals to be signed and sealed, and after some shock, broken and repealed; Friendships, in fact, are formed not made, Formed to last through life’s light-and-shade”, and adhigaram 81 (Pazhaimai – Old friendships/Familiarity), kural 801, “Familiarity is friendship’s silent pact; That puts restraint on no familiar act”.
These kurals encapsulate the time-tested, civilizational bonds between India and Southeast Asia, while also shedding light on why India’s decision to withdraw from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a mere blip in the India-Southeast Asia relationship radar. The kurals also advocate for strengthening of ‘old friendships’ which have inherent trust, shared interests and a common worldview and hence explain India’s desire for more robust relations with Southeast Asia. Constantly highlighting synergies between its Indo-Pacific Oceans’ Initiative and the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Outlook has been a strategy employed by New Delhi since its launch in 2019.
The Kural’s view of India’s Indo-Pacific strategy reveals New Delhi’s sound ability to compartmentalise and balance relationships based on the principle that each partner and stakeholder – ‘friend’ or not – have an indispensable role to play in the region. This has manifested into India’s potent call for inclusiveness and continued belief in multilateralism. India’s recent G20 chairmanship which focused on ‘connecting the Global South’ and ‘perseverant’ membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS demonstrate precisely this. As the most vocal advocate of these norms and values in recent years, India’s growing role as a normative power must not be undermined. New Delhi’s current trajectory in the Indo-Pacific does in many ways align to Valluvar’s notion of an ‘ideal, pragmatic state’. A conscious continuity in current foreign policy approaches is hence crucial for India to keep the momentum.
About the authors:
Rahul Mishra is Associate Professor, Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He tweets @rahulmishr_
Yanitha Meena Louis is a Doctoral scholar at Universiti Malaya and Researcher at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.
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