India, Nov. 9 -- Whose side is India on? It is perhaps the oldest question asked of Indian foreign policy and its architects. It returns with every great-power rivalry, every crisis, every major war - and it comes from friends and adversaries alike.

Eight decades since the county's Independence from colonial rule and a dozen governments of various political colours later, the question has outlived all of them. So, has India's answer, which is usually some elegant and diplomatic version of "neither side". In my book India After Nonalignment, I suggest that there is a better question to ask of India: "What does India want?" Because whose side India is on depends on what India wants.

Governments have changed. Ideologies have changed. Prime...