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India Examined

Since the BJP came to power in 2014, India has made an ambitious claim about its place in the world. India Examined is DiploPolis's ongoing analysis of that claim — what Indian foreign policy actually delivers, how the world actually sees New Delhi, and what the gap between India's civilisational ambitions and its strategic reality means for the country, the region and the Global South it claims to speak for.

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In the Mother of Democracy, Students Came With the Constitution. The Police Came With Batons.
On 21 July 2026, a day after protesters faced a brutal police crackdown, Jantar Mantar in New Delhi was once again packed with demonstrators demanding the resignation of India’s Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. (Source: @Cockroachisback via X/Twitter)

Analysis

In the Mother of Democracy, Students Came With the Constitution. The Police Came With Batons.

Modi spent three weeks filling stadiums as Vishwaguru. On July 20 his police beat students on parliament street. Their photographs — from the protest stage and from the hospital emergency ward — were in the same international news cycle as the Marvel Stadium footage.

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