Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s minced no words when he recently chose to speak about the world order. He said, the global order is changing, and the institutions meant to anchor it, the United Nations among them, are struggling to keep pace. It was less a lament than a diagnosis, delivered by a leader who wants India seen as part of the cure.
His sharpest observation concerned the tools of everyday globalisation. Trade, technology and sea routes, he said, are “being weaponised”. The remark must be read as a reference to the ongoing US-Iran war in West Asia and other conflicts, where supply lines, shipping lanes and digital know-how have become instruments of coercion rather than channels of shared prosperity.
To frame the danger, Modi turned to Chanakya. He cited the Sanskrit maxim “apranitah tu matsyanyayam udbhavayati”: when the law of punishment is kept in abeyance, it gives rise to Matsya Nyaya, the law of the sea, where the strong swallow the weak. The image is vivid. In a pond without a keeper, big fish eat small fish. Chanakya’s insight was that order is not natural; it is enforced. Remove enforcement, and power alone decides.
“The world does not need such a situation,” Modi said. “It needs a system that stops this ‘matsya nyaya’ from happening.” The line carries the speech’s logic. His complaint is not that the rules are wrong but that they are not holding. When multilateral bodies cannot restrain the powerful, the vacuum is filled by whoever holds the most leverage over trade routes, technology and capital.
Then came the Indian credential. Modi pointed to the pandemic: “During the Covid-19 pandemic, the world experienced India taking on such a role. India sent vaccines to every country in need; sent medicines to over 100 countries.” The claim is that India has already played the stabiliser, supplying the vulnerable without demanding allegiance at a moment when richer nations looked inward.
His prescription was threefold. “The changing world order calls for stronger global institutions, a greater voice for the Global South, and international cooperation that stands firm in times of crisis,” he said. Each plank answers a failure. Institutions need teeth. The Global South, which absorbs the shocks of disrupted energy, food and shipping without a proportionate say, needs a seat where decisions are made. And cooperation must be proven in storms, not merely celebrated in sunshine.
The domestic frame followed. On Viksit Bharat, the goal of a developed India by 2047, Modi said the dream is “not just for us”. It is, he added, “also a guarantee for a better world.” The argument turns India’s growth story into a global offer: a stronger India means a more dependable partner when crises hit.
“International cooperation isn’t just for good times,” he said. “It must be effective during crises too. India is strengthening its own capabilities to help strengthen the world.” That is the crux: national strength as a global public good. In a world drifting toward the law of the sea, Modi is betting that a capable, developed India can help keep the pond orderly instead of becoming another fish in it.