India-US partnership in a post-liberal world
Focusing on cultural revival, economic nationalism and strategic autonomy, India is charting a path deeply rooted in its ancient ethos.
American politics is undergoing a radical transformation. Trump 2.0 marks a seismic shift from the raw populism of 2016 to a post-liberal tsunami that is upending classical liberalism. Intellectuals like Patrick Deneen (Why Liberalism Failed) and Adrian Vermeule (Common Good Constitutionalism) have long warned that liberalism is hollowing out America — eroding community bonds and cultural anchors, and celebrating an atomised individualism. These ideas have snowballed into a force that is fuelling a return to sovereign primacy, cultural authenticity, and a worker-first economy. The debate in America now pits nationalism against globalism, cultural rootedness versus tech utopia, and traditional working-class values against elite cosmopolitanism. Trump remains an ideological Rorschach test, but there’s no mistaking his current team’s post-liberal sympathies, markedly different from traditional Republican beliefs. JD Vance, the vice president and author of the biographical bestseller Hillbilly Elegy, is an articulate mascot of this new intellectual vanguard. Yet, internal tensions persist: Populist nationalists like Steve Bannon have clashed with newer adherents — dismissively labelling the Silicon Valley leaders swarming around Trump as “techno feudal globalists”. These ruptures show that the lava hasn’t yet cooled and set into a coherent narrative.
Parallel to America’s reawakening, India is experiencing its own transformation. Casting off its Nehruvian secular framework, it is embracing an assertive Bharatiya identity. Focusing on cultural revival, economic nationalism and strategic autonomy, India is charting a path deeply rooted in its ancient ethos.
While far from complete, there’s no denying that the decades-long project of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)/Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is becoming the national political currency, embraced by many other political parties. Most importantly, it has moved beyond politics. The revivalist fervour in Indic intellectuals is missing among India’s globalist secular liberals — it’s as if their intellectual well has run dry. Social media and podcasts reflecting a multitude of Indic voices have bypassed traditional media — many are strident but there are enough with thoughtful heft.
On the international stage, America First is the pragmatic lens through which to assess all strategic partnerships, trade deals and global conflicts. Canada and Mexico, two neighbours with large economic linkages, are being threatened with tariffs. The Israel-Palestine crisis has been strong-armed into a truce. China is seen as a formidable global power competitor requiring aggressive economic and technological responses. Trump 2.0 is clearly a retreat from the Pax-Americana promise of the 1940s, replaced by a self-interested America that is focused on the western hemisphere.
This recalibration presents a unique opportunity for India. Rather than merely weathering the storm of a brute-force, transactional regime, India could actually elevate its transactional partnership with the US into a structural, strategic one. The way to do this is by framing our relationship around the authentic alignment between America’s emerging post-liberal outlook and India’s own civilisational renaissance.
The two are deeply interconnected through a shared shift: Both reject the homogenising tendencies of liberal secularism and embrace civilisational self-confidence rooted in a country’s unique historical, cultural, and spiritual traditions. For instance, in the US, post-liberal thinkers advocate for a public ethos grounded in Judeo-Christian moral frameworks — not as an imposition of faith, but as an acknowledgement of the historical values that shaped the American republic. This worldview provides a cohesive moral foundation for policies related to family, community, and governance without mandating religious conformity. In India, the resurgence of sanatanadharma serves a similar role. It is not about establishing a theocratic State but about reaffirming the civilisational ethos that has guided India for millennia. The dharmic worldview, with its emphasis on pluralism, duty and cosmic order, offers a framework for ethical governance and cultural revival.
This convergence creates a unique diplomatic space where both nations can respect each other’s internal trajectories without the moralistic judgments that characterised earlier phases. In the liberal internationalist framework, the US often felt compelled to export its values as universal norms. This occasionally led to tensions with countries like India, which viewed such efforts as intrusive and dismissive of its distinct civilisational context.
In contrast, the post-liberal alignment can acknowledge that true partnership does not require ideological conformity. It is grounded in the recognition that each nation’s internal policies are expressions of its civilisational character — worthy of respect, not reform.
The strategic advantage of civilisational realism: When nations operate from a foundation of civilisational realism, their partnership becomes more predictable, stable, and resilient. They are no longer hostage to the ideological mood swings that often accompany changes in political leadership. It reduces friction over issues like religious freedom, cultural policies, or social norms, fosters a principle of mutual non-interference, and because the partners feel respected in their civilisational core, they are more willing to engage in deep, long-term cooperation.
This partnership can move beyond a fragile consensus built on superficial commonalities, to a robust convergence grounded in the understanding that true allies do not need to be identical — they need to be authentic. In a world increasingly defined by civilisational self-assertion, the Indo-US alliance can thrive because it allows each partner to be unapologetically itself. Such an alignment could be the fulcrum for the nuts-and-bolts pragmatism of transactional diplomacy on many fronts. Economically, both nations can explore resilient supply chains and strategic trade agreements that directly serve their national interests. In defence, the vision could include agile joint task forces, integrated intelligence centres, and the co-development of cutting-edge military technologies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US arrives at a critical juncture. As America navigates its own post-liberal transformation, Modi’s visit can crystallise a partnership that draws on shared ethical values and cultural imperatives, ushering in a truly transformative relationship.
Swati Ramanathan and Ramesh Ramanathan are co-founders of Jana Group, committed to India’s urban transformation.The views expressed are personal