In New Delhi this weekend, India hosts the 18th BRICS summit — a gathering that asks an ancient question in modern dress: can a rising power hold the center when the world's great forces pull in opposite directions? With Xi Jinping making his first visit to India since 2019 and Vladimir Putin also in attendance, Prime Minister Modi must demonstrate that his country can deepen ties with Beijing and Moscow without surrendering its relationships with the West, and that BRICS can serve the Global South without becoming an instrument of Chinese ambition. It is the art of balance performed on a narr