The CVoter survey finding seems consistent with an earlier finding, conducted by a different agency, which found that 80 percent of Indian respondents strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that India is better than most other countries. It was a global survey, and Indians came in second, behind Japan. And that was at the time of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government. This rising self-belief and confidence among Indians as a people has been growing, largely unnoticed at home by Indians and abroad by the rest of the world.
This self-belief extended to Indians' perception of their country's military prowess in the CVoter survey, 90 percent, of respondents were confident India would probably defeat Pakistan. A smaller but significant portion of them, 72 percent, felt the same level of confidence vis-a-vis China, which, according to military experts around the world, is a superior military power to India.
Asked if the US would come to India's help militarily in the latter's conflicts with these two countries, 56 percent of respondents said it would be "definitely" or "probably" for China and 59 percent for China. The survey noted that "a remaining large minority skeptical of US aid in such scenarios".
The US did indeed come to India's aid in the two conflicts with China, 1962 and 2020. But, as the survey noted, US contribution remained publicly unacknowledged by the Indian government, then (Congress government led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and BJP government now led by Prime Minister Modi). A former White House official felt compelled by the resounding lack of public expression of gratitude for US help in 2020 to put it on record at an annual security conference in New Delhi.
The survey also found that Modi's popularity had rebounded from the mauling it received for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the protest by farmers, with 71 percent of respondents supporting him strongly or somewhat.
The Prime Minister's rebounding popularity, and that of the ruling BJP, was found worrying by the writers of the CVoter-Stimson survey report.
They wrote: "Worryingly, supporters of Modi or the BJP were more likely to express discriminatory attitudes toward Muslims, such as stating they did not want to have a Muslim as a neighbor or that they believed India's Muslim population was growing too fast. It is worth stating, however, that among all non-Muslim respondents, including both Modi supporters and skeptics, such discriminatory attitudes were widespread."
Even more worrying perhaps was the survey's finding that non-Modi supporters harbored similar antipathy for Muslims. "It is worth stating, however, that among all non-Muslim respondents, including both Modi supporters and skeptics, such discriminatory attitudes were widespread. An overwhelming majority of 78 percent of respondents stated that they believed India's Muslim population was growing too fast."
And finally, the survey found that Indians supported ramping up the country's nuclear arsenal to a level higher than all adversary countries.
Asked how many nuclear weapons India needed, respondents said: "An overwhelming majority, 68 percent, assessed India needed more than its enemies. Just 13 percent said India should have about as many nuclear weapons as its enemies, and only a handful assessed that India should only have a few' or 'not any' nuclear weapons." (AA/IANS)
