What S Jaishankar said at IIT Madras on India, democracy and the West

India’s civilisational continuity and its choice of democracy have shaped not just the country but the modern world, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.

Speaking at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Jaishankar said India is among the few ancient civilisations that have survived to emerge as major modern nation states. This continuity, he said, gives India a deep awareness of its past.

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He argued that India’s decision to adopt a democratic political system after independence had global consequences. According to him, that choice helped transform democracy into a universal political idea. Without India’s example, he said, democratic models might have remained limited to a few regions.

#WATCH | Tamil Nadu: At IIT Madras, EAM Dr S Jaishankar says, “… There are really very few ancient civilisations which have survived to become major modern nation states, and we are one of them. We have a sense of our past, which very few countries have… It was our decision… pic.x.com/20vvZDMTXw

— ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2026

“It was our decision to opt for a democratic political model, which actually made the very idea of democracy a universal political concept; had we not gone that way, I think the democratic model as we know it would have been actually very regional and very narrow.”

Jaishankar stressed that India has a responsibility to articulate its own values, culture and history on the world stage. At the same time, he underlined the importance of engaging with the West in a cooperative manner.

“It is our duty, our obligation to express our thoughts and our values, culture and history. But it can be done in a congenial partnership kind of way because I think that partnership with the West is important. I think it is very much a way of how we shape the world…,” said Jaishankar.