Saudi royals may not be a liberal democrat’s cup of tea, or even barrel of crude. But there’s no denying their importance. A quarter of the world’s oil — some petroleum specialists are questioning Saudi Arabia’s reserves, however — two of Islam’s holiest shrines and thanks in part to these two attributes, the country’s importance in all policy responses to radical Islam, make the ruling family a priority in chanceries around the world. India, playing host to a Saudi monarch after 51 years, however may have realised that its view of Saudi Arabia’s importance needs to be nuanced.

The oil-for-sweat 1.5 million, predominantly unskilled and semi-skilled Indians work in Saudi Arabia, remitting four billion dollars annually economic relationship doesn’t reflect India’s economic transformation. Saudi demand for high-level entrepreneurial and technical skills is still huge and India should be in a position to supply some of that. And since the conservatives of the House of Saud haven’t been given a particularly easy time by jihadis, something useful may well come up when the prime minister talks terrorism with the king.

Saudi Arabia is useful for India beyond foreign policy, however. The political predilection in this country to treat its 140 million Muslims as an undifferentiated electoral mass has led to keeping them mostly out of the reach of the reformist forces interrogating Indian society’s other conservative elements. That this stasis hasn’t produced the problematic and overt radicalisation seen in other countries is a tribute to both the republic and its largest minority. But that’s hardly enough and, as the homegrown terrorist caught in the Bangalore IISc attack shows, it may not be a permanent solace. Saudi Arabia is an exemplar in this context of the dangers of prolonged non-reform. The royals preside over a society so badly in need of transformation that many well-wishing observers fear the capacity to handle change may have been significantly eroded. India’s Muslims deserve infinitely better — there’s no better Republic Day pledge to take in the company of Saudi royals.