Propping up India will come back to bite the western countries in the arse big time, more so than trading with China. Hindutva ideology has no grace nor honor, plus it carries a perennial chip on its shoulders for being dominated by external entities for more than two millennia. It will settle scores with every bit of insidious subterfuge as any scorned woman.
China spoke little and did much, as Deng Xioping taught, and even now when China is getting somewhat more verbal their business hasn’t been wretched because their foundation is solid.
Indian political messaging is noisy and chaotic and Down sight toxic when pressed. The west wants to ignore it but their economic management is also chaotic and “politically motivated”, not unlike California in a way, and we can see how that state is losing business to other American states.
The west should indeed be wary of raising up India through investments, they haven’t dropped the victim mindset as most Chinese have done.
For many reasons it would be better if any industries moved out of China should not go to India or Vietnam and should instead go to Mexico and the rest of Latin America (to slow down immigration and raise Latin American economies).
Americans already expect to be screwed over by India, and are thinking about ways to preventing, and if India is prevented from growing at an average of 10% per year on the cheap (on the back of America) for the next 20-25 years (by when their demographic dividend runs out) then India will be stuck in the middle income trap, and won’t be able to dictate an outsized portion of global rules of the road.
P.S. at the same time Pakistan needs to reform itself up to catch up in 30-40 years; about 2 generations, and gain global influence to properly counter balance india.
2nd P.S. India’s caste system (a form institutional racism as seen in California) is impacting its diasporas, unlike the Chinese (and many East Asian) diaspora(s). The Canadian Sikh issue is also shaping the image of India as a whole. Modi is going a great job exposing India’s actual face.
