The Making of a Potent Power: India's Strategic Evolution in Multipolar world

The international system today has undergone a significant transformation from a bipolar order to a unipolar order. The contemporary global order is observing an ongoing transformation into a more diffused and complex multipolar world characterized by the presence of multiple centres of power. This evolving global order is marked by shifting alliances, strategic competition as well as cooperation, and the growing importance of emerging states. This paper explores the making of a “potent power” by examining India’s strategic evolution in this contemporary multipolar world. The primary objective is to evaluate the key factors such as policy formulation, strategic autonomy, multi-alignment, and its engagement with global governance institutions that help in raising India’s global influence. The paper also aims to analyse India’s potential to balance its national interests with competing global powers. Though a lot of scholarly research work is being done in this domain but the key research gap lies in the lack of a comprehensive approach that connects India’s economic growth, foreign policy, and strategic choices within a single analytical framework. Most of the existing studies discuss these aspects separately, without clearly explaining how they together contribute to India’s emergence as a potent power in a multipolar order. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative and analytical approach, it is mainly based on secondary sources such as academic literature, policy documents, international reports and official statements. By tracing India’s strategic trajectory in the 21st-century period, the paper analyses that how India’s rise is shaped by a flexible strategy of maintaining strategic autonomy along with multi-alignment. Moreover, India’s influential rise remains gradual and shaped by both opportunities and constraints. These include both domestic challenges and external pressures. This study tries to contribute to the comprehensive discussion about multipolarity by positioning India as an increasingly influential, yet evolving, actor in the global order.