Global Quest and Regional Reversal: Rising India and South Asia

The end of the Cold War coincided with a significant change in India’s relationship with the rest of the world. The somnolent elephant awoke to energize itself by liberalizing its economy and quickly emerged as a potential major power in global politics. From the standpoint of its neighbours in South Asia, there might well be cause for anxiety. India has long been viewed as a hegemonic power in the region. Do the strengthening sinews of the regional ‘hegemon’ bode ill for them? The article argues that India was a limited hegemon in the past, but that, in the contemporary era, while its economic and military power are growing significantly, it is actually becoming less hegemonic in its orientation towards its neighbours. In contrast with its strategic behaviour in the 1980s, it has now adopted a less interventionist relationship with its neighbours and its strategic gaze is focused beyond South Asia to the global setting as it pursues the status of a world power.