Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Indian officials and commentators have increasingly suggested that India is and should be guided by the concept of strategic autonomy. What exactly is strategic autonomy? How would we know it when we see it? And has it been good for India? Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, the originator of the term “strategic autonomy” in Indian discourse, defined it as “the capacity of a state to take relatively autonomous decisions on matters of vital interest”. The words “vital” and “relatively” are important because “not all interests are of a vital nature, and in a multi-state landscape, one cannot ascribe absolute value to every interest”. Put differently, trade-offs and concessions are inevitable in foreign policy, but not on vital interests. How would we know what strategic autonomy actually means for India? As things stand, official pronouncements on it are largely non-falsifiable — almost any decision can be ascribed to strategic autonomy.…