By Dipak Kurmi
On 17 September 2025, the eve of his diamond birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi received a call from the President of the United States, Donald John Trump. It was no ordinary call; it came at a moment when Indo–US ties were showing signs of strain after weeks of tension over trade tariffs. In a gesture that combined diplomacy with personal warmth, Trump became the first global leader to extend greetings to Modi on his 75th birthday.
The American President later tweeted: “Just had a wonderful phone call with my friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I wished him a very Happy Birthday! He is doing a tremendous job. Narendra: Thank you for your support on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine!” Modi responded without delay, tweeting: “Thank you, my friend, President Trump, for your phone call and warm greetings on my 75th birthday. Like you, I am also fully committed to taking the India–US Comprehensive and Global Partnership to new heights. We support your initiatives towards a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
The reference to Ukraine was significant. Only days earlier, Trump had held positive talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, and with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington. These meetings were seen as a hopeful attempt to pave the road toward a durable peace in one of the most turbulent conflicts of the modern era. That Modi chose to endorse Trump’s efforts reflected not only the importance of the issue itself but also India’s desire to continue shaping the evolving architecture of global diplomacy alongside the United States.
The First Seeds of a Relationship
The history of Indo–US relations is neither shallow nor recent. Its roots go back to the late eighteenth century when George Washington, the first President of the United States, sent Benjamin Joy as Consul–designate to Calcutta in 1794. The attempt, however, met a peculiar fate. Lord Charles Cornwallis, then Governor General of India, and the very man who had surrendered to Washington at the Battle of Yorktown during the American War of Independence, refused to accept Joy’s credentials. Diplomacy was still hostage to the scars of war.
Yet threads of connection soon began to form in unexpected ways. In 1814, Francis Scott Key, a thirty–five–year–old lawyer, penned what would later become the American national anthem, The Star–Spangled Banner. Remarkably, he wrote it aboard HMS Minden, a British warship built of Indian teak. Few would imagine that the anthem that stirred American hearts for generations had its origins linked to Indian craftsmanship floating on the Atlantic waters.
By the 1830s, the Indo–American story took a more practical, and even whimsical, turn. Trade in ice became a profitable American enterprise, spearheaded by Boston’s “Ice King,” Frederic Tudor. In 1833, the first consignment of ice arrived in Calcutta aboard the SS Tuscany. The city awoke to a novelty that felt like magic in the tropical heat. J. Stocqueler, editor of The Englishman, recalled being roused by his servant with the startling news that “burruf” had arrived from America. He described the wonder of seeing “a square mass of purest crystal, packed in felt and fragrant pine dust,” with American Baldwin apples laid upon it. That morning, Calcutta’s tables glittered with lumps of ice, goblets turned into miniature Arctic seas, and society suspended business until noon to marvel at the miracle.
The Governor General, Lord William Bentinck, presented a gold cup to the American captain of the Tuscany, and the city soon raised a subscription to build an Ice House. Ice became not just a commodity but a cultural bridge, transforming Calcutta’s banquets into frosty feasts of swans carved from frozen blocks, chilled soufflés, and casks of red wine. When an ice exporter mailed a letter from Boston to Calcutta in 1873 with a 90–cent Lincoln stamp, Gandhi was a toddler, Vivekananda a schoolboy of ten, and Ulysses S. Grant sat in the White House. By then, the romance of American ice had left its crystalline imprint on Indian memory.
A Shared Struggle for Freedom
The two nations were bound by another, deeper parallel—the quest for liberty. America had fought a revolution against British colonial rule in the eighteenth century, while India waged a prolonged and peaceful struggle for independence in the twentieth. The apostle of non–violence, Mahatma Gandhi, became a global moral force whose teachings inspired Americans like Martin Luther King Jr. and later President Barack Obama. The ideological kinship of liberty, democracy, and justice gave Indo–American relations a resonance beyond mere commerce or strategy.
When India finally gained independence in 1947, the United States watched closely. In October 1949, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru embarked on his maiden visit to America. President Harry Truman described it as a “voyage of discovery of America.” Addressing audiences in New York, Nehru acknowledged Franklin D. Roosevelt’s quiet but persistent interest in India’s freedom. He also expressed deep admiration for Abraham Lincoln, whose life and legacy left an indelible impression on him.
In 1951, Nehru received from American professor Arthur Ernest Morgan a brass mould of Lincoln’s right hand, originally cast by the sculptor Leonard Volk in 1860. The relic, which Nehru placed on his study table, became a daily source of strength and reflection. “I look at it every day and it gives me great strength,” he later said, adding that India and the United States shared a faith in liberty and the dignity of the individual. The relic still rests in Nehru’s museum in Delhi, alongside a framed lithograph of Lincoln.
The Kennedy Era and a Golden Chapter
Indo–US relations reached their zenith during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s vision of a world of free and interdependent nations resonated strongly with Nehru’s own ideals. Writing in Foreign Affairs in 1963, only months before Kennedy’s assassination, Nehru acknowledged that Indo–American ties had never been closer. The United States had extended sympathy and practical support to India during its conflict with China, generating a wealth of goodwill.
Both leaders also shared a love for literature, particularly the poetry of Robert Frost. Frost, who once predicted that the next president of the United States would come from Boston, became Kennedy’s intellectual lodestar. At Kennedy’s inauguration on 20 January 1961, the elderly poet, aided by Lyndon B. Johnson, recited his poem The Gift Outright from memory. The Washington Post later described Frost’s recital as one of the defining moments of the ceremony, remarking that “Robert Frost in his natural way stole the hearts of the inaugural crowd.” For Nehru, who also admired Frost, this convergence of politics and poetry symbolized the higher ideals binding India and America.
The Long Road to Partnership
From Benjamin Joy’s rebuffed credentials in 1794 to Modi and Trump’s warm exchange in 2025, the Indo–American relationship has traveled an extraordinary path. It has oscillated between suspicion and cooperation, estrangement and alliance. During the Cold War, India’s non–alignment often collided with American strategic interests, while moments of crisis, such as the 1971 Bangladesh war, exposed tensions. Yet cultural connections, people–to–people exchanges, and the steady growth of trade laid the groundwork for a sturdier partnership.
Today, Indo–US relations are framed as a “Comprehensive Global Partnership.” They encompass defense agreements, technology cooperation, trade, climate initiatives, and a vibrant diaspora that binds Silicon Valley to Bengaluru. The recent phone call between Trump and Modi, framed by wishes of peace in Ukraine and renewed friendship, is but the latest chapter in a story that spans over two centuries.
The symbolism of ice melting in Calcutta, the teak wood that carried America’s anthem, Gandhi’s influence on King, Nehru’s brass mould of Lincoln’s hand, Kennedy and Nehru’s shared admiration of Frost—all these episodes are not random anecdotes. They are threads in a vast tapestry that reveal how Indo–American relations have always been textured by history, culture, and ideals as much as by politics and economics.
A Future Written Together
As the world grapples with conflicts, climate change, and the realignments of global power, the Indo–American relationship stands as one of the pillars of democratic cooperation. It is shaped not only by treaties and tariffs but by deeper affinities: the shared belief in freedom, the resilience of democracy, and the conviction that nations across oceans can find common cause.
When Trump and Modi exchanged warm greetings in 2025, it was not merely a diplomatic formality. It was a reminder that this relationship, like water in Zubeen Garg’s poem, finds its way around obstacles, flows across decades, and gathers into waves of new possibility.
Two republics, born of revolutions, remain linked by memory and hope. Their story is still being written, but its roots—crystalized in ice, cast in brass, recited in verse—reach deep across centuries.
(the writer can be reached at dipakkurmiglpltd@gmail.com)
