India, Feb. 22 -- April 18-24, 1955, and February 16-21, 2026 - these dates will forever be etched in our nation's history. But what's the relation between these?

Let's begin with the past. The first decade after the end of World War II was consumed by the process of decolonisation. One by one, African and Asian nations were gaining independence. For centuries, their resources had been relentlessly exploited by their colonial masters, leaving the huge population in these regions on the brink of starvation and extreme poverty.

The newly independent nations were courted hard by the two rival superpowers of the era: the US and the Soviet Union. Leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Josip Broz Tito, and Sukarno were concerned that choosing any one...