India: The Pragmatic Giant of World Politics

India is one of the oldest civilizations in human history, known for its unique culture. Since its independence in 1947, the country has made enormous socio-economic progress and today ranks among the most powerful countries in the world. With its 7th largest territory and a population of over 1.4 billion people, ahead of China, New Delhi occupies an increasingly important role in geopolitics.

India is one of the fastest growing economies and aims to reach high middle income by 2047, the centenary of independence. At the same time, the country aims to achieve the desired growth while combating climate change and zero net emissions by 2070. Over the past 20 years, the country has made remarkable progress in improving living standards. According to the World Bank (WB), between 2011 and 2019, the country halved the proportion of the population living in extreme poverty.

The Asian powerhouse faces major challenges despite its successes. It holds the key to the future of South Asia along with China and Pakistan, but with the US pulling out of Afghanistan and its influence in the region waning, the trilateral relationship between New Delhi, Beijing, and Islamabad has become increasingly complicated. In terms of security, India has been threatened by Islamic Pakistan's activities in the Kashmir and Punjab regions for decades. At the same time, India's disputed borders with Pakistan and China continue to create uncertainty for the country. Despite several rounds of negotiations with Beijing, there is no prospect of an agreement shortly. Chinese military incursions into Kashmir in recent years have heightened tensions between the Asian giants.

India's foreign policy strategy is unique. The country is a member of the G-20 and BRICS but does not see the latter organization as an attempt to oppose the West but as a way of economic well-being. In August 2023, at the BRICS summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined his country's motto: "One Earth, One Family, One Future", calling for the regulation of growing tensions in international relations.
India's foreign policy can be summed up in one word: pragmatism. Economic and military deals with Russia do not exclude a strategic partnership with the United States and ties with the West. A sign of the European Union's growing interest in India and vice versa was the memorandum of understanding signed on September 9, 2023, which links the country to markets in the Middle East and Europe. Remarkably, the new corridor accounts for half of the world's economy and 40% of the world's population. It will cover 5,000 km of sea lanes, railways, tunnels, and pipelines, but work on its implementation is likely to be delayed by the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.

No less interesting is the history of the relations between India and Bulgaria despite the huge distance that separates us.
India's Ministry of External Affairs emphasizes on its website in the Bulgaria section that "the two ancient civilizations are proud of their glorious cultural heritage" and bilateral relations are "long-standing, warm and friendly" and adds:
“Our people-to-people contacts and cultural ties predate the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1954, and there are traces of contact between the peoples of the two countries as far back as the 8th century AD. Despite the political changes that both countries have witnessed in the last six decades, India and Bulgaria as two independent nation-states have developed close, cordial, and multi-dimensional relations. A multi-faceted relationship thrives on continuity and mutual understanding and progressively becomes a binding friendship.”

Few people know that in the 19th century, the prominent Bulgarian revolutionary Georgi Rakovski expressed support and sympathy for the people of India on the occasion of the First War of Independence in 1857.
The only Bulgarian journalist who managed to get an interview with Mahatma Gandhi was the Macedonian Bulgarian Nikola Kolarov, director of the newspaper "Tselokupna Bulgaria" in the 1940s. Gandhi presented him with an autographed portrait of himself.

From November 6 to 9, 1981, the emblematic Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi paid an official visit to Bulgaria. Even then, she noted the great opportunities for cooperation between the two countries.

The culture of India became more familiar in Bulgaria after the visit of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore to Sofia in 1926, which was an important milestone in the development of relations between the two countries. Indian classics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Panchatantra as well as contemporary authors like Prem Chand, Mulk Raj Anand, and Amrita Pritam have been popular in our country over the past decades. Some of the prominent Bulgarian poets such as Hristo Botev, Hristo Smirenski, and Nikola Vaptsarov have also been translated into Indian languages.

Today, the Indology major is part of the "Classical East" Department at the Center for Eastern Languages and Cultures at the Faculty of Classical and New Philologies at Sofia University. The department completed 30 years since its inception in 2013 and has played an important role in spreading the knowledge of Indian languages, philosophy, history, and culture in our country.

A significant part of the Indian community in Bulgaria is made up of students studying medicine at the universities of Sofia, Pleven, Plovdiv, and Stara Zagora. Some Indians are engaged in trade, restaurants, etc. Some representatives of IT companies have come on temporary assignments to develop software for banks and multinational companies. The two countries have signed agreements in the field of tourism, the fight against organized crime, the fight against international terrorism and the illegal trafficking of narcotic and psychotropic substances, science and technology, and economic cooperation, as well as the protection of investments.

In recent years, bilateral trade has been worth about 200-250 million dollars, but the potential for the development of economic ties remains significant. /BGNES