Iran and India lead a just participatory global order

Source: The post Iran and India lead a just participatory global order has been created, based on the article “ Iran and India, ancient civilisations and new horizons” published in “The Hindu” on 9 September 2025. Iran and India lead a just participatory global order.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2- International Relations – India and its neighborhood-relations.

Context: The Western-led order faces a profound crisis. Violations, trade wars, and environmental damage expose fading dominance. Ancient civilisations—especially Iran and India—are presented as guides for a participatory order for the Global South.

For detailed information on Challenges Between India and Iran Bilateral Ties read this article here

What is changing in the global order?

1. Signs of systemic crisis: There are violations of international law, unchecked force, trade wars, weakened institutions, media manipulation, and environmental destruction. These are signs of a deeper crisis.
2. Decline of the classic toolkit: The West’s tools—global finance, technology monopoly, imposed human rights standards, and media control—are losing power. The U.S. cannot dictate as before.

How is the Global South responding?

1. Awakening and self-reliance: Countries reject domination. They adopt local models, build indigenous science and technology, and strengthen defence and security.
2. Civilisational anchors: Ancient civilisations have a unique role. Iran and India have shaped global culture for centuries.
3. Peaceful ethos, transformative influence
   Both valued peace and fought only in defence. Even when defeated, their culture reshaped conquerors through statecraft, governance, literature, philosophy, and art and architecture.

What civilisational values link India and Iran?

1. Continuities across faith and time: After Islam’s arrival, Iran’s values continued in new form. India, the oldest continuous civilisation, was enriched by Islamic influence.
2. Shared moral foundations: They share respect for life, belief in the triumph of good, respect for diversity, inner purification, and spiritual growth.
3. Modern resistance to domination: India’s anti-colonial struggle and Non-Aligned leadership defended the Global South. Iran’s oil nationalisation and the Islamic Revolution resisted western domination. Both embody peace, spirituality, and respect for nature, offering guidance against structural violence, environmental crises, and social collapse.

What costs and choices define their independence?

1. Pressures endured: Iran has faced economic terrorism, cognitive warfare, and external interference. It has not yielded.
2. India’s experience: India has faced unjustified pressures and hostile measures. It preserved identity and independence.
3. A joint path forward: They can strengthen South-South cooperation, act in BRICS, uphold human and moral principles, and advance the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) to build a just and humane order.

Which issues and platforms anchor a new order?

1. Centrality of Palestine: Palestine reveals Western hypocrisy, supremacism, and brutality. Its struggle defends the Global South’s right to resist domination.
2. Rights and law: Iran’s defence of peaceful nuclear energy affirms the South’s right to development. Iran stands for international law, diplomacy, and dialogue.
3. Vehicles of change: BRICS can challenge economic dominance amid sanctions, trade wars, and efforts to prevent de-dollarisation. The INSTC is a civilisational bridge linking Eurasia, the Caucasus, India, and Africa, bringing stability to West Asia.

What obstructs regional security—and what alternative is offered?

1. External destabilisation in West Asia: The U.S. and allies support the Zionist regime and fuel instability in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. This blocks indigenous security. Iran opposes such interventions and threats to territorial integrity.
2. Manipulation in South Asia: The U.S. created and expanded terrorist groups when useful. It intervened under an anti-terror pretext and returned power to them when it suited its agenda.
3. A different model: At this turning point, Iran and India propose an order of justice, participation, equality, and human dignity. Nations become builders of their own destiny, led by ancient civilisations toward a shared future.

Question for practice:

Discuss the role of Iran and India in leading the Global South toward a just international order.