Shifting Contours of India’s Asian Relations

This article analyses Asia’s changing structural dynamics impacting India’s relations with the region, post-Independence. Earlier, liberalism, realism and nationalism actively shaped India’s foreign policy choices; however in recent times, a contradictory processes marked by the emergent domestic constraints originating from the failure in India’s economic development meets with the unfolding international opportunities due to China’s phenomenal rise and its growing contestation. This volatile mix of constraints and opportunities forms a paradox that lies at the core of India’s changing foreign policy behaviour towards Asia. Theoretically, India has been quick to decipher ‘advantages of being backward’ (Gerschenkron) and use them in a manner that promotes its national interests. India is trying to counter Beijing promoted ‘economic interdependence’ by US-led ‘political interdependence’. The article argues that China’s economic ascendancy compare to India’s economic backwardness has unleashed genuine fear that East Asia is heading to be under China. Consequently, USA, Japan, India and Australia seem to be inching towards a ‘quadrilateral consensus’ aimed at resisting Chinese hegemony over Asia. This incremental desire to contest Beijing has thrown open an international opportunity for India, which is much bigger than the constraints, imposed by its persistent economic backwardness.