(Neo)Orientalism As Strategic Narrative: How Global Indices Attempt To Thwart A Rising Bharat
Indices constructed by the Freedom House, the Economist Intelligence Unit and the V-Dem project have all downgraded the democratic status of the civilisation-nation in recent years
Why do international reports suddenly propagate that democracy in Bharat (India) is in decline? Is it a coincidence that this chorus has grown louder when the civilisation-nation rises in global stature and attempts to execute difficult but independent policies in the departments of external affairs and military? Beneath the numerical charts and rankings on freedom and development, a pattern has emerged—one that eerily resembles the colonial playbook used in the 19th century. We may now be witnessing a contemporary form of 'orientalism", weaponised via global indices. The concept was canonised in postcolonial studies by Edward Said and continues to exert intellectual influence.
Analysed historically, colonial powers not only invaded but also narrated. Said notes that the military expedition that France undertook to Egypt in 1798 consisted of a cache of knowledge producers. Artists and scholars produced the Description de l'Égypte—a massive, decades-long documentation of the land of pyramids, which could be easily circulated. It portrayed Egypt and the East as anarchic and backward, which was in need of enlightenment.
No less a tactician than a great general, Napoleon knew that such a strategic narrative about Egypt would justify his invasion to the public in France and international audiences. The same logic guided the British Raj to depict Bharat as backward, superstitious, timeless, and varna-bound. It legitimised imperial occupation as a 'civilising mission". David Spurr and Nicholas Dirks have studied discursive aggression of this variety in relevant depth.
The tools of strategic narrative have now changed, but the instincts remain the same. Quasi-state actors like international NGOs (INGOs), involved in track-2 diplomacy, now deploy rankings and reports to manufacture persuasions that can decide the global image of a nation. And increasingly, Bharat seems to be in their crosshairs. Indices constructed by the Freedom House, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project have all downgraded the democratic status of the civilisation-nation in recent years. V-Dem, for instance, now labels Bharat as an 'electoral autocracy". The largest democracy lags behind Nigeria, Tunisia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Gabon, and more. The irony is remarkable.
The dramatic classifications do not rest on robust criteria. They are methodologically flawed as they are based on subjective surveys filled out by a small pool of anonymous experts. Their ideological biases are unknown and unchecked. The metrics, too, are inconsistent.
Salvatore Babones has repeatedly exposed how these indices are riddled with ideological blind spots. He argues that far from being impartial observers, the INGOs act more like self-appointed arbiters of global virtue, engaging in moral overreach under the guise of democracy advocacy. By selectively citing controversies and amplifying elite dissent, these organisations construct a narrative of democratic backsliding that is out of sync with electoral realities and constitutional norms in Bharat. The maintenance of linguistic diversity and the decriminalisation of homosexuality are certainly not highlights of an authoritarian polity.
INGOs run on funds generated by a liberal order of global politics in which the USA is still the hegemon. Besides being devoted to liberal economics, such an international state of affairs—led by the US and other NATO nations—is equally invested in the spread of its version of 'liberal democracy". In 2006, a state document of the US on strategic culture observed, '… Americans have seen themselves as exceptional. This exceptionalism has influenced the way the United States deals with others … The impulse to transform the international system in the service of liberal democratic ideals forms a strand that runs throughout American history. The Clinton administration's national security strategy of engagement and enlargement and the George W Bush administration's commitment to spreading democracy … have more in common with one another than either administration's supporters would admit."
To put it differently, the spread of neo-liberal democracy along with neo-liberal economics is a state-driven enterprise in which the powerful conglomerate, composed of the US and other NATO nations, is the spearhead. Academics and activists who are assimilated in the well-heeled system of INGOs via fellowships, funding, salaries, and internships are not anti-establishment, therefore. They are the establishment that does not speak truth to power. They parrot the truth that power has asked them to.
These circumstances expose neo-orientalism as the strategic narrative deployed by the North-West against much of the East, including Bharat. Just as knowledge workers during the British Raj had claimed expertise over the civilisation-nation without really understanding it, INGOs today project assumptions and ideologies that are rooted in liberal orthodoxies. When complex developments in an ancient polity like Bharat are routinely measured in terms of templates that are ideologically laced and hegemonically driven, the result is disinformation.
The power of strategic narratives of this sort must not be underestimated. Indices are widely cited in academic research, international media, policymaking, and tourism. They influence diplomatic postures, investor confidence, and the moral standing of a country in global forums. When a rising power like Bharat is consistently painted as illiberal, it is not just ideological nitpicking—it is a form of reputational containment. As the civilisation-nation asserts its rightful place on the world stage, it must offer its own story.
Of course, this is not to suggest that Bharat is beyond critique. No democracy is perfect. But critique must be consistent and fair. This piece is not a rejection of scrutiny but a call for intellectual honesty. It is a reminder that colonial attitudes can resurface in new forms—as data, as indices, and as expert opinions. It was tragic the first time; this time it is farcical.
Dr Arunoday Majumder is Assistant Professor in Rishihood University and MA student of IR, Security, and Strategy at OP Jindal Global University. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
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First Published:
June 25, 2025, 17:20 IST
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