India's foreign policy has long emphasized the preservation of independent decision-making in international affairs. During the Cold War, this objective was expressed primarily through non-alignment; in the contemporary international system, it has increasingly taken the form of strategic autonomy and multi-alignment. India now maintains significant relationships with powers that often have competing interests, including the United States and Russia, while simultaneously participating in groupings such as BRICS and the Quad. This paper examines whether this diversification of partnerships has strengthened India's ability to pursue its national interests independently. It argues that engagement with multiple centres of power has expanded India's strategic choices, but that diplomatic flexibility alone does not guarantee genuine autonomy. Defence, energy, technological and supply-chain dependencies continue to constrain India's freedom of action. Strategic autonomy is therefore better understood not as independence from international relationships, but as the capacity to manage interdependence without allowing any single external power to determine India's strategic choices.