It is one thing for a nation to be squeezed by great powers; it is quite another to look like you are enjoying the squeeze. Unfortunately, that was exactly the optic India presented at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, an affectedly beaming Prime Minister sandwiched between Putin and Xi, laughing for the cameras as though global realignments were some picnic. The backdrop was no less telling - Trump’s tariff war on India had just gutted entire sectors of export trade, Beijing’s military parade had rolled out the hardware of a confident challenger, and Moscow was happily playing junior partner to China in a staged “axis of convenience.”

Strip away the forced smiles and what emerges is a harsher truth: India is currently caught in a no-man’s land of its own making, punished by Washington, courted by Beijing, indulged by Moscow, and sadly unsure of where it truly belongs. The world order is not being upended into neat blocs of East and West; it is thickening into layers of competing interests, each demanding clarity, and India’s tragedy is that it has no clarity, at home or abroad.

Donald Trump has always wielded trade as a weapon. The 50% tariff on Indian imports (explicitly tied to our continued purchase of discounted Russian oil) is more than just economic calisthenics. It is as blunt a message as it can get; hedge all you like, but there is a price for defiance. The consequences are immediate and brutal. Textiles, gems, machinery, and chemicals - industries that feed millions of households - are staring at a loss of market share in the United States, and hundreds of thousands of jobs hang in the balance. Unlike China, which can leverage its manufacturing dominance, or Russia, which thrives in the shadows of sanctions, India has no such cushion. We are neither indispensable nor ignorable; we are simply vulnerable.

The contrast is striking: while American........

© Mathrubhumi English