As the U.S. presidential election enters its home stretch, many Indians are asking a familiar quadrennial question: Which of the two main candidates is better for India? For a small but vocal group of commentators and social-media mavens, a Clinton victory would set back Indian interests and damage Washington’s ties with New Delhi. They are mistaken.

In the Indian imagination the case against Hillary Clinton rests on two shaky pillars: concerns about possible relapse into the rocky U.S.-India ties of Bill Clinton’s presidency,...