Tourists gather in front of Taj Mahal in Agra, India.
(Brijesh Singh/Associated Press)

Sixty years ago, on Aug. 15, 1947, the country once referred to by Queen Victoria as a "jewel of her Crown" won its independence from Britain. Today, India, with a population of more than a billion (second only to China) takes its place on the world stage as a stable and more powerful player than ever.

As the unofficial leader of the Non-Aligned States during the Cold War, India was a force to be reckoned with. And today, with its newly prosperous economy, fascinating culture, stable government and nuclear capability, India is fast becoming a major player.

Atul Kohli, a professor of international affairs at Princeton University, says the recent transformation of India has been quite profound.

"In the past, India possessed a sluggish economy with constant fears of famine and political partitions," Kohli said. "Now that these worries have subsided, the country is one of the world's fastest growing economies, as well as being a relatively stable democracy.

"There's been a remarkable shift both in the realities and perception of the country."

In fact, a recent article in the New York Times saw India, along with China and South Korea, as outstripping the United States in research and development spending growth.

Whether it can take on China remains to be seen.

"If you look at power in fairly raw terms like nuclear capabilities, economic growth, size of army and arms, China remains ahead," Kohli said.

"However, the Chinese are terribly interested in India because they now have a major player on their border. If you leave the standard picture of raw power aside, there are certain issues that make India look more dynamic in the future."

India's advantages

What are the things giving India its heft? For one thing, India's democracy attracts many countries that wish to invest there or take advantage of its drive, Kohli said.

"Whenever there's a crisis, it can be solved by political entrepreneurs," Kohli said. "However, it's uncertain how stable China is. India's economy is driven by indigenous capitalists, while China's growth is often dependant on external resources."

Then there is the fact that as a former member of the British Empire, it's an English- speaking country (English is considered the subsidiary official language behind Hindi), which means it integrates well in terms of values and economy with such powerhouses as the U.S. and Britain.

As well, it possesses what Kohli refers to as soft power.

"It looks like a country other countries may want to emulate," Kohli said. "China, on the other hand, looks like an extreme example of a country that had a revolution, did some good things with communism, and then made some heroic blunders.

"India looks more like a normal country that has struggled hard and now found its footing."

Problems remain

India is not without its problems, however. It still suffers significant poverty, with an estimated 300 million people considered very poor.

Prof. Sumit Ganguly, director of the India studies program at Indiana University, says the "biggest challenges within India remain endemic poverty in certain parts of the country, the persistence of caste and religious divisions, and the growth of some recent insurgent movements."

The country also has significant gender problems. According to a Unicef report released in 2000, as many as 5,000 women die yearly at the hands of husbands and in-laws in "accidental" kitchen fires related to dowry issues or honour killings.

As well, there is still tension with Pakistan, its Muslim neighbour with whom it split 60 years ago and fought at least three wars.

Those tensions may lessen with a deal signed earlier this year, in which India and Pakistan agreed to work together on a variety of fronts and move their nuclear arsenals back from their borders in hopes of significantly decreasing the chance of an accidental use of nuclear weapons. Both countries have been on the brink of nuclear war several times, primarily over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Washington's footprint

Naturally, how the United States views India has an enormous effect on its presence on the world stage.

"When the United States pays special attention and makes special concessions to India, it raises the country's stature in the eyes of other Western powers," Kohli said,

The way the U.S. treats Pakistan and India can be confusing.

Two years ago, the United States unveiled plans to help India become, "a major world power in the 21st century" at the same time as it decided to sell a number of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan to prop up that country's power.

"Now it's time to see if the United States will treat India as a major power or continue to play the old balance of power game," Kohli said.

In terms of nuclear power, the relationship between the U.S. and India became strained when India performed nuclear tests in 1974, using enriched uranium from a Canadian-made CANDU reactor. It became strained even more when both India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

More recently, an Indo-U.S. civil nuclear agreement was created in 2006 to open India's nuclear facilities to at least some degree of international testing and provide the basis for increased U.S. trade. But not all Indians are happy: Some Indian politicians fear the deal compromises India's independence.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured critics the pact doesn't affect India's right to undertake future nuclear tests, although some doubt that. What it does do, however, is encourage a possible $40 billion US worth of business investment from American companies in the next 15 years.

The mark of a powerful country can often be determined by its leaders. "Sadly," Ganguly said, "not since Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, has the country been blessed with a genuinely visionary leader."

Singh is probably the closet the country has come to again finding a visionary leader, Ganguly says, but he lacks the kind of wide, sweeping vision Nehru offered, which was not without its downside.

"However," Ganguly said, "Singh's quintessential decency, his commitment to abating grinding poverty and his willingness to stand up to a number of antediluvian forces at both ends of the political spectrum distinguish him from all his [predecessors] bar Nehru."

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