How India stands up against bullying, but with reforms and patience

The global mood is currently sharp-edged, supply chains are weaponised, rules are bent, and tariffs are waved like truncheons. India is being hit with US tariffs for choices it makes in its national interest. Whether called leverage or bullying, the intent is to push a sovereign country to change course. India has long met moments like this with a steady head and an open hand, holding the line without closing the door.

Since Independence, India has chosen the harder path: refusing double standards while embracing her duty as a responsible global power.

Consider the nuclear story. India declined to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, not out of defiance, but because these frameworks divided the world into nuclear “haves” and “have nots”. Yet India did not equate independence with indiscipline. New Delhi established a credible minimum deterrent, publicly declared a no-first-use doctrine, and has kept a voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing since 1998. It joined the world’s major export-control regimes, aligning domestic practice with the strict standards demonstrated by responsible powers. In other words, India said no to unfair rules and yes to necessary self-imposed restraint.

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A similar tale unfolds on climate action. India has correctly insisted that those who overused the planet’s carbon budget on their development journey cannot now ask the Global South to bear an equal burden. India championed the “common but differentiated responsibilities” thumb rule to embed equity in climate cooperation. And yet, Indians did not pause in principle. India built the world’s most ambitious clean-energy scale-up. India pledged net-zero carbon emissions by 2070 and co-founded the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to help developing countries leapfrog to affordable renewables. Even today, India’s per capita emissions sit far below the global average, while millions are still being lifted into prosperity. This is development with discipline.

Trade and public health have carried the same imprint of principle in India’s conduct. At the WTO, India fought to protect the policy space needed for food security and public stockholding, not as an indulgence, but as a lifeline for the world’s largest democracy and for many developing economies. On intellectual property and medicines, India helped shape a global consensus: public health must allow flexibilities, including compulsory licensing.

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Without such tools, millions would face tragedy instead of treatment. India not only argued the principle, it acted on it. By issuing a compulsory licence for life-saving cancer drugs and enabling its generic industry to scale up affordable alternatives, New Delhi showed how rules can be interpreted to put patients before patents.

That precedent gave real weight to the Doha Declaration’s promise of flexibilities. As the “pharmacy of the developing world”, India supplied affordable generics that turned the tide against HIV and other diseases, an example of commercial success and moral clarity aligning.

That same ethic extends to security and diplomacy. India is among the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping, with over 200,000 personnel having served in more than 50 missions across continents. India’s blue helmets have built schools in South Sudan, secured elections in Congo, and patrolled the rugged hills of Lebanon, earning a reputation for professionalism.

India’s humanitarian outreach has included tsunami relief in the Indian Ocean (2004), evacuations during the Yemen conflict (2015), rescue operations after Nepal’s earthquake (2015), Operation Ganga in Ukraine, and aid following the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake. During the pandemic, Vaccine Maitri sent doses to dozens of countries. India is invariably the first responder in the neighbourhood when calamity strikes.

In an age of increasingly transactional alliances, India still acts on a civilisational conviction: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the world is one family. Our stand has been consistent: strength used not for dominance, but for stability and service.

This approach of sovereignty with stewardship is why India can stand firm today without sounding shrill. The economy is larger, more digital, and more self-propelling than a decade ago. Private consumption is a big engine, the services backbone is deep, and supply chains are already finding their way towards India for scale and stability.

A tariff squall may slow India; it will not sink it. Abroad, the “bullying” label is being questioned on its own merits. When several countries make similar energy choices, selective pressure naturally attracts scrutiny in policy circles, including in the United States.

There is a point worth stating calmly: partnerships thrive on respect, not deference. Allies can disagree without name-calling. This is not a new theatre for India. It is the same muscle memory that kept Indians steady in harder times, saying no to double standards and yes to duty. That is why partners who disagree with India still count on it. They may not like every choice India makes, but they recognise why Indians make them: affordability for households, security for our economy, and stability for our region. When responses have been required, India has acted smartly and proportionately, raising the cost of arm-twisting without setting off spirals that hurt ordinary people.

Across its history, India has met coercion the same way: neither rage nor retreat, but balance. Calm words, firm choices, patient execution. From declining unfair treaties while practising restraint to leading on matters that impact the world, India has not bowed to bullies. That is how a responsible power behaves when the world turns rough, and that’s how Bharat stands up without burning bridges.

Maitridevi Sisodia is a Deputy Collector and an award-winning author. She is passionate about women empowerment, heritage conservation and social equality. Her writings are widely published and acclaimed. She’s a speaker at national and global forums. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.