TheEvanCat said
Would India even be regional power if it got blasted by Paki nukes? There's no way in hell it would have remained unscathed.
They're unquestionably the regional power of South Asia (there's not much competition there, really), but don't really have too much weight to throw around in terms of global influence any more. Right up to their nuclear exchange with Pakistan they might have even been considered a global power (they're heading down that path IRL) but the nukes really put a damper on the entire economic and social progress thing. The main detriment to their progress wasn't even the nukes though, it was the ten+ years of war with China that came immediately afterwards and the oppressive military rule which accompanied it.
People should note, however, that Pakistan failed to launch its entire nuclear arsenal on India before India gave their rebuke and not only incapacitated many of Pakistan's nukes (via, well... more nukes) but also decimated it to the point of no return. Basically, Pakistan used low-yield nuclear missiles on advancing India troop formations (who were already within Pakistani borders), hoping that they could repel and invasion while possibly not encouraging nuclear retaliation from India. India responded with a complete wipe of Pakistan, rather than restraining themselves from escalating the situation further or using similar low-yield bombs on enemy troops. What ensued was a full-on exchange, but India ultimately 'won' due to the fact that it had been able to not only out-range Pakistani nuclear devices (they could strike anywhere in Pakistan, but Pakistan could not retaliate in a similar fashion) but also disable many of their known launching facilities.
Still, most of western India was devastated beyond repair, and the capital itself was basically leveled. I'm dragging most of my information from various webpages, so I like to think that what I'll be presenting is mildly realistic, if not a paragon of that adjective. Anyway, as an actual answer to your question, no- it's not at all unscathed. It's a hell-hole, albeit a reasonably functional one. It's mostly withdrawn from the world stage to tend to its sizeable wounds and ensure that its hegemonic sphere in South Asia doesn't get uppity, as they're pretty essential to India's security, economy, and indeed it's very survival. Basically, India is still the paramount power of its own region (note: I don't consider the Middle East and South Asia to be the same or even similar regions, so I'm certainly not going to compare Iran's power/position to India's) but it's relatively insignificant on the world stage.
What I was aiming for was making India feel like the 'Sick man of Asia' in the style of the late Ottoman Empire. It remains to be seen, however, if they'll collapse, fall into irrelevance, or redeem themselves to a certain extent (akin to post-WWI Germany, perhaps).
