In recent months the Modi government has stopped calling India a Vishwaguru and started to refer to the country as a Vishwamitra. How should we explain and understand this sudden if not abrupt transition? Second, does the term Vishwamitra accurately characterise India’s relationship with its neighbours such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal? Or is it seriously mistaken because it masks reality and hides how they actually view our country? Those are the two key issues addressed by the well-known historian, author and political commentator, Ramachandra Guha, in this interview.
In this 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Guha not only talks about the “foolish fantasies” behind India’s claim to world leadership, and how these seem to have been punctured after the G20 Summit last year, but also discusses how the term Vishwamitra does not describe the way Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and Nepalis view India. He analyses, in telling terms, how each of these countries has experienced numerous instances of political intervention as well as rhetorical boastfulness by India.
Guha draws attention to aspects of our relationship with these three countries that, even if we are aware of, we tend to ignore and overlook. For the citizens of these three countries they remain dominant in terms of how they view India. However, he points out that the Vishwamitra policy i.e. strategic generosity will not work with countries like Pakistan and China where the state itself is hostile to India
