The September 2 issue of
The Spectator
featured a cartoon of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak riding an ascending rocket. Inside, the lead article—a preview of the G-20 Summit in New Delhi—was headlined “India’s Century.” The G-20 gabfest was later billed by much of the global commentariat in similar terms: This was India’s coming-out party as a twenty-first-century superpower, one that might challenge China as the Asian colossus of the future.