India is going through reforms at social and economic fronts, MJ Akbar said. (File)
India can play a vibrant role in shaping the world order in the 21st century, Union Minister M J Akbar said in Hyderabad on Saturday.
He ascribed the Indian challenge to the colonial powers almost a century ago as the start of the emergence of the present world order.
The Minister of State for External Affairs was speaking on 'India's Aspirations and Role in Emerging World Order' during a visit and interaction with the participant officers of Higher Defence Management Course (HDMC) at the College of Defence Management (CDM) in Hyderabad.
"The Indian challenge stands out, due to its own characteristic freedom struggle, based on its unique ideology of 'Satyagraha'. It coincided with the end of First World War and start of the crumble of empires.
"It led to the birth of a nation-state based on the will of the people rather than the will of the monarchs," an official release quoted him as saying.
He termed the cold war as the third world war and the fight against terrorism as the fourth one.
"The fourth world war against terrorism has taken the wars out of the control of the nation-state into the hands of non-state actors and radicals, who no longer believe in the concept of the nation-state, but believe in 'Faith-Based Spaces'," he said.
Indian Armed Forces are faced with the dilemma of fighting based on the rules of engagement with the new adversaries, who do not follow the same rules and it is for the future leaders (of the Forces) to be aware of it and be trained for it, he said.
"India can once again show to the world the path to deal with this new challenge of terrorism, and therefore be the harbinger of the new world order in the 21st century," Mr Akbar added.
He also said India is going through an internal change and reforms at social and economic fronts, which is both exciting and disturbing.
"The changes once fructified will remove the shackles, which have kept India from its emergence to its true potential in the new world order," the release quoted him as saying.