US-India relations not a Bollywood movie, need more than just photo-ops

A new survey shows that Indians view the US as the biggest military threat to their country after China - and, even more shocking, put it ahead of Pakistan

In American foreign policy circles, where lazy hegemonic assumptions still abound, there is a widespread conviction that the US-India relationship will play out like a Bollywood film: There may be some resistance at the beginning, some friction in the middle and plenty of song and dance along the way, but in the end the protagonists will overcome all hurdles and live happily ever after.

This optimism is predicated on notions of a common political culture (both countries are democracies), some shared threat perceptions (China and jihadist terrorism) and mutual economic interest. The view from Washington appears all the sunnier