Seventy-seven years after India broke free from British rule and became truly independent by following a non-aligned policy, Britain has humiliatingly achieved vassalage status by becoming completely dependent on US policy despite being a former Great Power. Instead, the former colony is now experiencing great global influence, and even within Britain itself, when we consider former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is of Indian stock.
Following the dismantling of the British Empire in the 20th century, London had hoped to maintain indirect control and influence over its former colonies, including India, just as France did over large swathes of Western Africa. However, the UK was not successful in this endeavour. Instead, the former “Jewel in the Crown” of the British Empire expelled all British influence over the country’s governance, with newly independent India becoming an important member of the Non-Aligned Movement.
In line with New Delhi’s longheld Non-Aligned policy, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed on August 17 at the third virtual Voice of the Global South Summit to create a human-centred “Global Development Compact” for the Global South to facilitate trade, technology sharing, and financing on favourable terms. India occupies a crucial position within the Global South, and its active participation in cooperation is significant in promoting cooperation among developing countries, such as through the BRICS formation, among others.
Due to frustration over India forging its independent path with Global South countries and losing global hegemony, particularly over its former colony, the United Kingdom supports separatist forces within the South Asian country. Britain’s support for separatist forces is only set to increase after the Labour Party won a landslide victory in a parliamentary election earlier this year, bringing to power Keir Starmer, whose centre-left party openly backs separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and promotes Khalistan, a movement seeking to create an independent homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethnoreligious sovereign state in northwest India.
The 2024 Labour election manifesto promised to seek a “new strategic partnership with India, including a free trade agreement, as well as deepening cooperation in areas like security, education, technology and climate change,” and Starmer stressed at the India Global Forum: “What my Labour government will seek with India is a relationship based on our shared values of democracy and aspiration,” but in action, London has only continued its hostile and condescending policies towards New Delhi.
A vital issue for the UK is that India demonstrated its commitment to its independent path by refusing to join the anti-Russia camp and instead deepened its ties with the Eastern European country. Russian crude accounted for a record 44% of India’s total imports in July, reaching 2.07 million barrels per day, 4.2% higher than in June and 12% higher than a year ago. Based on Chinese customs data, this figure surpassed China’s July oil imports from Russia of 1.76 million bpd via pipelines and shipping.
India’s access to cheap Russian energy has significantly contributed to the reason why India, as a former colony that had $45 billion looted by Britain and thus impoverished and crippled the country when it achieved independence in 1947, has overtaken the UK as the world’s fifth largest economy. India is expected to also overtake Japan and Germany in 2027 to become the third largest economy, while the UK is expected to slip down to 10th place by 2050.
In effect, what this data shows is that India is thriving while Britain, which had the advantage of building its economy off the back of looted tens of billions of dollars, is in terminal decline. Of course, India has a long path to bring the per capita GDP to current Western standards, but extreme poverty is rapidly declining, standing at under 3% of the population, whilst the opposite is true in the UK, where absolute poverty has seen the biggest rise in 30 years, standing at 18%.
India’s rising economy follows its growing global influence. In comparison, Britain’s global influence has declined as Global South countries are no longer willing to deal with British chauvinism, exceptionalism, and hypocrisy. The so-called Global Britain initiative has failed, whilst European, Asian, African, and Latin American countries are desperate to build trade relations with India, identifying the huge potential of the country’s rapidly growing Middle Class and booming industry.
More importantly, due to Britain’s terminal decline and inability to exert its influence abroad, the country has capitulated to Washington’s policies, which often run contrary to the interests of Britons. London frames its servitude to Washington as one of cooperating on pan-Anglo interests, and although this may appear true in the case of AUKUS, it does raise the question of what interests the UK has in the Asia-Pacific region beyond economic.
It is obviously the imposition of US hegemony over the region, but this does not boost the credibility and image of Britain’s global image, and rather just damages it as it is now exposed to be nothing more than a vassal of Washington rather than an independent and mature state, just as India has become after overcoming significant British-created challenges at its independence.
*
Click the share button below to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary
This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from InfoBrics
