Washington

A new survey has found an extraordinarily high level of self-confidence among Indians about being Indians.

Similar national self-belief is called ‘American Exceptionalism’ in the US, which appears to have been overtaken by this new ‘Indian Exceptionalism’, according to this survey.

The survey also found persisting distrust among Indians of the US. While most Indians believe the US will come to India's aid militarily in a conflict with China and Pakistan, a large minority of them do not - almost 4 out of 10 Indians think India will have to go it alone.

Further, the survey reaffirmed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's return to peak popularity from the beating he received for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the protest by farmers.

And, finally, the survey said Indians want to amass more nuclear weapons than all adversary countries.

The survey was conducted in 12 languages in 28 Indian states and six of eight union territories over April-May by CVoter, a leading Indian polling agency, for The Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank with a robust South Asia department.

The poll contacted 7,000 voters by phone.

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A massive majority of Indians, 90 per cent, said they believed "India is a better country than most other countries".