Learning To Love Globalisation Again

It was the slap on the hand that did the trick. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi joked with President Donald Trump during their recent meeting, it dawned on everyone what was really happening. Bashed for everything from ‘Western’ values to divisive economics in recent times, there might be new reasons for India to fall in love with globalization again. It is, as always, all in the numbers. What is the total volume of India-U.S. trade? $142.1 billion in 2018. What is the volume of U.S.-Pakistan trade? $6.6 billion. The trade between India and the U.S. is 21 times between Pakistan and the U.S… Now who do you think Trump supports?

This story is emerging ever more starkly once India absorbed the state of Jammu and Kashmir entirely within its own constitutional territory earlier in August – the reason why the fall-out could have been contained, at least till now is that India is, finally, a big enough trading partner for most countries. And Pakistan is not. Even with China, the trade volume with India is around four-and-a-half-times that with Pakistan. Numbers talk in a way no ideology ever can (if you believe that ideology plays a role at all, of course).