India, Sept. 10 -- In 2017, walking past Trafalgar Square, I remember watching a group of kirtaniyas joyfully singing and dancing to devotional bhajans. The sight amused some passers-by and made others frown. To me, it captured how India was largely perceived at the time - an exotic land of "spirituality" and Bollywood glamour, where yoga mats and Hindi film songs were the most consistent ambassadors of its global image. Beyond that, India was seen as just another developing Commonwealth nation: its economy doing "alright" but not formidable, its political leadership visible but not yet commanding recognition, and its policymaking still recovering from the paralysis of the previous regime, with the new government only three years into its...