Grand Tamasha

India’s once-flourishing ties with Washington have soured in Trump’s second term, marked by punishing tariffs and penalties over Russian oil. This turbulence reinforces New Delhi’s instinct for “multi-alignment,” and the desire to hedge between great powers rather than bet on any single partner.Against this backdrop, a new paper by the journalist and analyst James Crabtree argues that now is the time for Europe to shine and to make the case that it is India’s most promising alternative in a shifting global order. The paper is called, “Pivot to Europe: India’s Back-Up Plan in Trump’s World,” and it has just been published by the European Council on Foreign Relations, where James is a distinguished visiting fellow. James spent ten years as a journalist and foreign correspondent, notably for the Financial Times, where he served as the Mumbai bureau chief. He is the author of the much-celebrated book, The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, published in 2018. He is currently a columnist for