A volatile political climate in Washington has triggered a wave of strategic anxiety in New Delhi. Buffeted by the transactional, often erratic policy shifts of the Donald Trump administration — which hit India last year with punitive tariffs on steel and aluminium, stripped its preferential trade status, and aggressively renewed ties with Islamabad while imposing irritants such as tightening H-1B visa rules — a growing chorus of domestic voices is calling for a fundamental reset of India’s China policy.The argument, championed largely by an influential business lobby, suggests that India’s confrontational approach toward Beijing was overly synchronised with Washington’s strategic...