India’s Modi and his Hindu-nationalist party have another five years in power. What does it mean for the world?

The prime minister who secured a rare third term in office this week has positioned India and its fast-growing economy as a crucial player in global issues like climate change and development, while cementing New Delhi as a key security partner for the United States and an aspiring leader of the Global South.. . Modis victory will give the 73-year-old leader and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) another five years to raise Indias global stature and to manage its contentious relationships and contested borders with nuclear-armed neighbors China and Pakistan.. ..

One aspect of Indias international ambitions thats unlikely to shift in Modis new term is New Delhis relationship with Washington a connection that has helped burnish the prime ministers profile as a power player.. . India has emerged as a key security partner for the US, a pillar of its Quad security grouping alongside Japan and Australia, and expanding cooperation on high tech and defense in the face of shared concern about an increasingly assertive and powerful China.. ..

We can expect a more assertive India aligning closely with US interests in the Indo-Pacific and expanding tech cooperation.. . . Ties between New Delhi and Washington have warmed in recent years even as Modi has firmly pursued Indias policy of strategic autonomy to push for a global order not purely dominated by the US or the US-China rivalry another goal expected to remain unchanged by the election..

But one question is how Modis third term will affect percolating concerns in American policy circles about a widely documented backsliding of civil liberties in India under his right-wing leadership as well as accusations the BJP aims to marginalize the countrys Muslim minority of more than 200 million.. . India has also faced significant allegations of extraterritorial overreach, which raise questions about the risks of the countrys growing confidence, assertiveness and commitment to international norms under Modi.. ..

The BJP uses the otherization of the image of Pakistan to rally its core Hindutva base, said Fahd Humayun, an assistant professor of political science at Tufts University in the US, referring to the ruling partys ideology that India is inherently a land for Hindus.. . To that end, it is not difficult to imagine a scenario in which, with its back against the wall, an embattled Modi government plays up the perceptions of external threats to try and rally domestic constituencies.. ..

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