In its entire history, India is known to the outside world as the land of Gandhi who won freedom for India by nonviolence resistance. Even though the British beat the crap out of Indians, Gandhi and his followers never lifted a finger against the British. This is the behavior expected of India by the West. In the words, India was thought to be a country of soft power, a.k.a cowardice.
Every time India tried to change this persona, the world tried to punish India. Indira Gandhi broke up Pakistan into two and the West openly supported Pakis and threatened India. Vajpayee made India a nuclear state and we all know how the West expressed its rage. In these two major incidents, India disobeyed the masters of the universe.
Modi went even further. Whether we agree with him or not, Modi has balls of steel. He dared to tell the West that we are equals. You hurt me and I will hurt you no matter who you are.
There will be several instances in the future when India will rub the West the wrong way and they will try to punish India. It is absolutely important that India never goes back to the old days of soft image. Most important thing for India is to get its act together internally to make huge progress in economic growth and defense preparedness.