An astonishing feature of India's bumpy ride to great power status is the near-total absence of public discourse on the country's foreign policy. There may be occasional bouts of interest in matters relating to Pakistan and, maybe, China, but these are linked to internal security concerns and questions of territory. In eastern India, Bangladesh, too, features on the mental horizon, but again as a part of the ongoing debate on demographic changes. However, larger questions are invariably subsumed under a grand foreign policy consensus forged by South Block. It is simply not done for either the political parties or the...