The deepening alliance between India and Israel, fuelled by ethnocracy, Islamophobia, and military cooperation.

In recent years, India and Israel have formed an increasingly visible and vocal alliance, one rooted not just in diplomacy or economics but in a shared worldview—founded on ethno-nationalism, militarisation, and the marginalisation of Muslim communities. What was once an unlikely pairing, given India’s historical solidarity with Palestine, has evolved into a strategic and ideological partnership that is reshaping geopolitics in the Global South.

This dramatic pivot raises critical questions: What drives India’s adoration of Israel? How did a post-colonial giant known for its secularism become one of the most ardent supporters of a settler-colonial state? And what does this alliance reveal about the broader global trend toward authoritarian ethno-nationalism?

From Solidarity to Symbiosis

In 1947, India voted against the United Nations partition plan that created the state of Israel. It was among the first countries to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the legitimate voice of the Palestinian people. India’s leaders long viewed the Palestinian cause as a mirror of their own anti-colonial struggle.

But that began to change in the 1990s, when India liberalised its economy and sought closer ties with the United States and its allies. The final catalyst came in 1999 during the Kargil War with Pakistan. Israel, then a relatively quiet player in South Asian affairs, rushed military assistance to India. It was a pivotal moment that cemented a strategic partnership.

Since then, the relationship has blossomed, especially under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—both of whom have embraced hardline nationalist ideologies. Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel in 2017, an event Netanyahu described as the beginning of a “marriage made in heaven”.

Shared Delusions: Democracy in Name Only

At the core of the Indo-Israeli alliance lies a fundamental contradiction: both nations proudly proclaim themselves as beacons of democracy, yet their domestic policies tell a different story.

Israel, founded on Zionist ideology, maintains an apartheid system according to international human rights watchdogs, systematically oppressing Palestinians while expanding illegal settlements. India, officially a secular republic, is experiencing what many scholars describe as a slow transformation into a Hindu ethnocracy under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), driven by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—a paramilitary group whose early leaders praised Nazi Germany for preserving “racial purity”.

Modi, once banned from entering the United States over his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, now leads a government accused of using bulldozers, mob violence, and discriminatory laws to marginalise India’s 200 million Muslims. The parallels with Israel’s treatment of Palestinians are striking.

United in Hatred: Islamophobia as Glue

Nothing bonds nations like a common enemy, and for India and Israel, that enemy is Islam.

Israel frames its military campaigns as a war against Hamas and “radical Islamic terror“, positioning itself as a frontline defender of the West. India has borrowed this narrative wholesale, recasting its long-standing conflict with Pakistan and internal unrest in Kashmir as battles against Islamist extremism.

Indian television news, increasingly nationalistic and polarising, mirrors Israeli media in its portrayal of Muslims as existential threats. In both countries, terms like “jihad”, “terrorism”, and “radical Islam” are wielded to stoke fear, justify violence, and suppress dissent.

When Israeli airstrikes decimate Gaza, Indian social media platforms are flooded with expressions of solidarity. Some Indians go so far as to publicly request Israeli citizenship and demand to be enlisted in the Israeli army. “Israel is fighting this war for you and me,” one news anchor declared, echoing a sentiment that would have been unthinkable two decades ago.

Tactical Symbiosis: Weapons, Surveillance, and Military Muscle

Beyond ideology, the India-Israel relationship is also deeply practical. India is Israel’s largest defence customer, purchasing everything from drones to missile systems to cyber-surveillance tools.

Israeli defence technology, honed through years of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, is now deployed in Kashmir. Indian forces operating in the heavily militarised region have been trained by Israeli experts, and facial recognition and population monitoring systems developed in Tel Aviv are now tracking Kashmiris in Srinagar.

Israel, for its part, benefits from a massive and growing export market and a diplomatic ally that offers legitimacy on the world stage. Both governments have turned to each other for lessons in control—India studying Israel’s settlement strategies and Israel studying India’s mass detentions and crowd-control tactics.

Cultural Cleansing: Rewriting History and Demographics

The parallels go even deeper into cultural and educational policies. In India, history textbooks are being rewritten to minimise or erase the contributions of Islamic empires like the Mughals. Even the Taj Mahal is being rebranded by some as a Hindu temple.

This campaign of “saffronisation” mirrors the Israeli project of “Judaization”—a long-standing effort to reshape historical narratives and demographics to suit a singular ethno-religious vision. Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem are bulldozed for Jewish-only settlements; Indian Muslim neighbourhoods are destroyed and labelled as illegal encroachments.

In both cases, history is not just being forgotten—it’s being weaponised.

Occupation and Expansion: Kashmir and the West Bank

Perhaps the most disturbing convergence lies in territorial occupation. The West Bank and Indian-administered Kashmir are both sites of brutal military control, demographic engineering, and sustained resistance.

India revoked Article 370 in 2019, stripping Kashmir of its limited autonomy and laying the groundwork for settler-style policies eerily similar to those employed by Israel. Some BJP figures have openly cited Israel’s settlement model as inspiration.

Meanwhile, Israeli surveillance firms like NSO Group—makers of the infamous Pegasus spyware—are allegedly providing tools to monitor dissent in both territories.

The Cost of Silence

The growing India-Israel axis is not just about bilateral cooperation—it’s part of a wider trend where democratically elected strongmen use religious nationalism to consolidate power. Their success depends on one thing: public complicity.

In both nations, fascist mobs rally behind charismatic leaders, fed a diet of fear, hatred, and conspiracy. Meanwhile, economic woes, inequality, and corruption are drowned out by televised debates on communal issues. Terms like “love jihad” and “population jihad” dominate headlines, distracting millions from the real structural crises plaguing their countries.

What is perhaps most tragic is how effectively these narratives turn oppressed groups against each other. Many of the same Indians who glorify Israel’s bombardment of Gaza fail to see the parallels in Kashmir. Many Israelis who cheer India’s clampdown on Muslims ignore the reality of occupation in their own backyard.

A Cautionary Tale for the World

India’s love for Israel may appear to be the product of political alignment or military necessity, but it is, at its core, a reflection of a deeper ideological convergence. It’s a bond forged in mutual hatred, validated through shared tools of oppression, and cemented by a global war industry that thrives on conflict.

But as these two nations grow closer, so too does the danger they pose—to their own democratic institutions, to regional stability, and to the basic human rights of millions.

This is not just an alliance between governments. It is a blueprint for a world where nationalism trumps pluralism, where surveillance replaces freedom, and where truth is a casualty of politics.