The End of Modi’s Global Dreams

In December 2004, when an earthquake and tsunami struck Asia, then-Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided it was high time for India to stop accepting aid from other countries to deal with disasters and rely on itself instead. “We feel that we can cope with the situation on our own,” he said, “and we will take their help if needed.” It was a pointed political statement about India’s growing economic heft, and it wasn’t the last. Singh’s government offered aid to the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and to China after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Seen as an indicator of self-sufficiency and a snub to nosy aid givers, the practice continued under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi, who has consistently campaigned on virulent nationalism—captured by the slogan (“self-reliant India”)—has been forced to abruptly