UNSURPRISINGLY, a recent Pew survey says India stood out, alongside Kenya and Nigeria, as one of the few countries to hold a favourable view of Israel. This trio, Pew said, was an anomaly in a 24-nation study that spanned Western democracies and selected Asian and African nations, most of which expressed widespread disapproval of the Israeli state. Such surveys are almost always conducted in a language or a format that leans on the middle classes to provide what passes for national opinion almost always without consulting any segment of the masses.

The survey says the prevailing global sentiment was largely shaped by the Israeli military assault on Gaza. “India’s relatively positive perception of Israel is not merely a geopolitical fluke but rather the outcome of a deepening strategic and ideological alignment.” Israel, the survey says, has consistently stood by India in moments of crisis, most notably voicing unequivocal support for New Delhi in the recent war with Pakistan. Let’s also add that a good reason for the prevailing ‘Indian opinion’ lies in the country’s notoriously self-regarding and increasingly communal middle classes.

An earlier Pew survey during George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq showed how the US president was put in the doghouse by almost the entire world, including the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. The exception was India. So, it’s not just about Israel, rather it may have much to do with a resurfacing of a colonial mentality,........

© Dawn