A new nine-nation opinion poll has found that an increasing number of Indians believe their nation will be a major global power by 2020, trumping even the US.
Asked which countries they saw as being global powers, now and in future, 38% Indians mentioned India (as of today), 79% named the
US, and 33% named China.
Perception of USA’s superpower status is dwindling. "Americans are more pessimistic about their role than Germans and British," the study said.
But their faith leapfrogged in relation to 2020. Seventy-two per cent said India would be a world power by then: more than people in the US (59%) and China (39%).
"Most... people expected their own country to increase in significance: in China, Russia and Brazil. However, the positive self-evaluation in comparison to the estimation of potential competitors is more pronounced in India than any other country," German think tank Bertelsmann Stiftung, which carried out the poll, said.
Perception of USA’s superpower status is dwindling. "Americans are more pessimistic about their role than Germans and British," the study said.
"India is on a breathtaking path to become one of the leading powers in world affairs. We, thereby, fully understand the great national pride in India going along with this rise," Josef Janning, head of International Relations at Bertelsmann Stiftung, told Hindustan Times by email.
However, only 29% of people in other nations expected India to be a leader by 2020. India ranked sixth after the US, China, Russia, EU, Japan.