The study, India: the Next Superpower? acknowledges Indias "formidable achievements" in fostering democracy, growth and cultural dynamism but concludes that these are nullified by its structural weaknesses, widespread corruption, poor leadership, extreme social divisions, religious extremism and internal security threats.
India, it argues, still faces too many "developmental challenges" to qualify for "super power" status, or to be considered a serious "counterweight" to China, a role sought to be thrust on it by some in the West. Some of the reports authors wonder whether India should even aspire to be a super power given its institutional weaknesses and social and economic divisions.
Historian Ramachandra Guha, currently the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE, suggests that rather than being seduced by the bright lights of great power diplomacy, India should instead focus on reforming its institutions and repairing the social fabric that seems to be coming off its seams.
We need to repair, one by one, the institutions that have safeguarded our unity amidst diversity, and to forge the new institutions that can help us. It will be hard, patient, slow work, he writes.
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Plunging the knife into Indian ambitions, the report says:"Still, for all Indias success, its undoubted importance and despite its undisputed potential, there is cause for caution in assessing Indias claim to superpower status. India still faces major developmental challenges. The still-entrenched divisions of caste structure are being compounded by the emergence of new inequalities of wealth stemming from Indias economic success. Indias democracy may have thrived in a manner that few ever expected, but its institutions face profound challenges from embedded nepotism and corruption. Indias economic success continues to come with an environmental cost that is unsustainable."
These problems are compounded by Indias "pressing security preoccupations" arising out of "insurgent violence" affecting large parts of the country and long-festering cross-border disputes.