DC Edit | In 2025, India Awoke To Power Of Independence

The year 2025 will go down as one in which India woke up to the realisation that it needed to stand up and be counted. To be assertive and aggressive in the face of terror attacks sponsored by its prickly neighbour, Pakistan, was a necessity and India, drawing an imaginary line in the sand, went on to establish a new level of offensive military operations, striking deeper into Pakistan’s territory than it had in previous ‘surgical strikes’.

The year became even more significant because India realised that it had to stand up to a trade bully, assert its individuality and its right to strategic autonomy, pursue the protection of its interests in a multipolar world and seek to diversify its export trade because the USA, long considered a country that needed India as a counterbalance to China, had imposed tariffs and sanctions amounting to 50 per cent because it had been buying Russian oil.

The narrative of the near war that India and Pakistan fought for four days in May might have two versions. There may also have been operational losses, including of aircraft, as India waged aerial combat before switching to calibrated drone and missile attacks. There was sufficient proof from high-resolution before-and-after images published by international media that the balance of the conflict was tilted very much in India’s favour, establishing India’s edge in targeting of Pakistan’s military facilities and airfields, including the Nur Khan air base that may have been a little too close for comfort of the Pakistan’s armed forces.

Donald Trump’s claim of successful mediation pre-empted the ceasefire declared on the evening of May 10 had been the first irritant that was to snowball into a standoff with the US President in the matter of trade and much else. India’s resolve to assert itself had hardened and this brought about a full rethink on global ties with the optics of a meeting with China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Tianjin, China driving the point home to the West.

It has always been said about international relations that there are no permanent friends or foes, but only permanent interests. And India’s worldview received a big push in that direction as active pursuit of trade deals led to the signing of landmark agreements with diverse countries, in Europe, the Gulf, Latin America, Central Asia and New Zealand in the deep south. Amid all this, a trade deal with America is also said to be in the offing, subject to the US President Donald Trump signing off on it.

The assertion of independence will come at a price. To be equated with Pakistan after the conflict, as the USA did before swinging all the way towards a nation with the dictatorial Asim Munir in charge, was an insult more than material loss.

The effect of tariffs was also nullified to an extent with the exporters were willing to take a hit rather than shut their deals and yet there are losses to be borne. In a year in which India rediscovered its power, its international presence, and its economic heft, the small losses are like badges of the courage it took to steer an independent course.