Rethinking Contemporary Indian Polity by Dr Shalini Saxena

Author:Dr Shalini Saxena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: VIJ Books (India) PVT Ltd
Published: 2018-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

Source: Saul Bernard Cohen, Geopolitics: The Geography of International Relations, 2009, Rowman and Littlefield Publications Inc, USA

South Asia as a region and India as a country is not seen featuring in any of the realms. Cohen kept it separate as an independent geopolitical region. The countries he included in this region are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan while referring to Myanmar as a bordering country connecting this region to East Asia and Asia Pacific Rim. (Cohen, p.329) The dominance of India in the region, however, has been kept intact with the speculation that in the long term this region may evolve “into a realm that embraces the Indian Ocean Basin” (Cohen,42)

Now, this seems to be on the path of realization as a culmination of India’s looking, acting, engaging east and far east as well as acting south. Based on the popularity of India’s rise narrative and the new regional construct, the question that can be raised here is whether it will alter the geopolitical structure of the world. Hence as a follow up to aforesaid prediction we can attempt to add a fourth realm named the Indo-Pacific Maritime Realm to Cohen’s world geopolitical structure as given in Table 1 earlier. This realm if framed will turn out to be inter-regional. It will take in parts of South Asia (India), parts of mainland Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Vietnam), North East Asia and Asia Pacific Rim countries (Japan, South Korea, Singapore Indonesia, Australia and Pacific Islands like Fiji). This new probable realm can also be treated as an ally realm of the first given the involvement of the United States in the former. As the region under question is huge and there exists a host of powers with economic and strategic capabilities, identifying a single major country is difficult at this juncture. Rather than a single country, a loose coalition can be identified that is leading element in this probable realm. Triggered by the need to secure the commons and the sea lanes of communication and ‘geopolitical anxieties’ and ‘imaginations’ of China’s rise (Pan 2014, 455-456) cemented by China’s assertiveness in the region along with development of strategic and military capabilities of India, development of a new pragmatic strategic culture and normalization of relations with a host of countries over time underpinned by the narrative of rise of India, this new regional discourse has taken shape. She is no longer trapped at the subcontinent level as was thought when creating the original structure. It is true that the ‘Indo’ in the ‘Indo-Pacific’ is not India but the Indian Ocean but given her location, her capabilities and the code of friendly countries she has developed for herself over time there cannot be a ‘Indo-Pacific’ without India and irrespective of criticisms the ‘rise’ cannot be ignored.

Conclusion

Jawaharlal Nehru had a vision reflected in these words (Nehru [1946] 1989, 536),

“The Pacific is likely to take the place of Atlantic in the future as the nerve centre of the world. Though not directly a Pacific state, India will inevitably exercise an important influence there.

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