It‘s in India‘s best interest to keep a low profile at least with the current dominant power in the world while they develop their own country. It‘s the smart strategy to play here. When there was tariffs imposed on India, many here predicted that India would react emotionally and would openly challenge the US which didn‘t happen. This is one of the examples where Chinese or East Asians in general don‘t have much of a clue how societies/cultures outside of East Asia work.
India nowadays is not interested in playing geopolitics that much. They subscribe to Deng Xiaoping‘s policy of keeping a low profile and never taking the lead. Outside of some conflicts with Pakistan, it does not even throw its weight in South Asia. This has however not always been the case. During Cold War, India was acting as the leader in non aigned movement, they started a massive conflict with Pakistan and split it in half, conquered Goa from the Portugese, intervened in Sti Lankan civil war etc. it‘s not like India can‘t get a thing or two done if it chooses to act irrationally but these days they are doing the right thing by focusing on economic development.
