South Asia politics and hegemonic Indian designs

SOUTH ASIA POLITICS AND HEGEMONIC INDIAN DESIGNS

 International relations writers have extensively covered the decolonization of the Subcontinent. However, only a few authors discussed India's recolonization of South Asia.

Indeed, India devised a long-term strategy for gradually recolonizing the regional states of South Asia under the direction of its first Prime Minister, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. There are three main aspects to this Indian strategy: a) causing political instability, b) causing an economic crisis, and c) causing ethnic, sub-nationalism, or religion-based conflicts in the targeted state.

Indeed, the Indian leadership assumed all of its colonial masters' roles as a successor state to British India.

Bhabani Sen Gupta, a well-known Indian author, made it abundantly clear in his writings that India's goals as a regional hegemon were.

"The Indian elephant cannot transform into a mouse," he stated. The six will have to accept the size of the seventh if South Asia is to emerge from its crippling conflicts and cleavages.

And the seventh, India, will have to demonstrate to the other six that size does not necessarily equate to beauty.

While the past has never been a pleasant or beautiful neighbor, the remaining six have suffered greatly over the past seven decades.

Mr. Gupta's description of Indian hegemonic plans against its neighbors is the best description of them.

In point of fact, it is a veiled expansion of the hegemonic Indian regional order in the South Asian region, which had seven states up until 2004.

Since becoming a member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 2005, Afghanistan has been regarded as a state in South Asia.

In contrast to Mr. Gupta's perception, India has never been an accommodating and responsible neighbor to South Asian states throughout its postcolonial history.

Instead, all of its neighbors saw it as a wild elephant; the states of South Asia and even some of ASEAN, trying to take them out one at a time.

Pakistan demonstrated a reluctance to accept Indian hegemony in this game of dominating neighbors.

India was able to disintegrate Pakistan in 1971 in order to establish its hegemony over the smaller states of South Asia because it discovered that Pakistan was strong enough to overcome India.

Kathryn Jacques says that Bangladesh's domestic and foreign policies have been completely dominated by India since 1975.

Indeed, Indian regional dominance is reflected in the "turbulent political life and economic woes of Bangladesh."

Indian policy that is coercive; where its neighboring states would undoubtedly look to India for solutions to their domestic problems and relationships with other nations.

Since India is the source of these problems, New Delhi holds the key to their resolution.

the territorial integrity and sovereignty of two sovereign states in the Himalayas; Since the 1950s, India has repeatedly undermined Bhutan and Nepal.

In fact, India desired Bhutan, Nepal, and Sikkim as parts of itself. Despite Chinese opposition, it was only able to take Sikkim in 1975. Bhutan and Nepal, on the other hand, were sovereign states and resisted India vigorously.

In 1949, India coerced Bhutan into signing an agreement that gave it indirect control over its domestic and foreign policies.

Despite a new agreement in 2007, "Bhutan has found it difficult to gain diplomatic independence" since then.

“Bhutan’s subordination to India is a remnant of the British Empire,” states Global Times. Over the course of more than seven decades, Indian rule persisted in Nepal.

Indian-sponsored Moist insurgency, which lasted until 2006, countered its struggle to escape Indian hegemony.

New Delhi was enraged when Nepal unveiled a new map in 2020 claiming sovereignty over its own integral parts that were under Indian influence.

The construction of a road that was opened by Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh sparked a significant protest from Nepal and India.

Dharchula, in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, is connected to the LipuLekh, also known as the Kalapani territory, which has been a Nepali territory for centuries.

Since the 1980s, the tiny island nation of the Maldives has been under Indian rule. In 1988, India stage-managed an attack and rescue of this state, and ever since, New Delhi has dominated its policies, ruling elites, and domestic hierarchical structure.

The Maldivian ruling class is attempting to lead India; campaign in the Indian Ocean archipelago known as "India Out." The LTTE's three-decade-long insurgency against Sri Lanka has received support from India.

When India sent its heavy military forces to Sri Lanka in 1987 for a peacekeeping mission, the Sri Lankan military rebuffed the Indian attempt to become a real regional hegemon.

After the Indian military was defeated, India fully supported the LTTE in their efforts to punish that state.

India opposes Sri Lanka's government's move closer to China and Pakistan, and Sri Lanka's economic collapse in 2021/22 was caused by an indirect Indian strategy.

India is concerned about its international relations with other Asian nations, particularly China and Pakistan, as Sri Lanka is an island nation with a very special and strategic location in the Indian Ocean.

The entire Indian involvement in Afghanistan aims to destabilize Pakistan by encouraging terrorism while operating from Afghan soil.

Despite the fact that the Taliban have been in charge of Afghanistan since August 2021, Indian RAW is working with the TTP and Daesh to promote militancy and terrorism in a number of Pakistani border areas.

Rising Indian imperialism poses a serious threat to South Asia.

India's strategy against its neighbors in South Asia is based on; the establishment of an Indian Order and Indian hegemony in South Asia.

New Delhi would achieve two goals with this order: long-term Indian hegemony and imperialism over the states in the region, as well as to keep China out of the region.

This strategy, which goes against the very essence of the modern state system, is all about subjugating South Asian states. Pakistan has obstructed this Indian regional hegemonic plan up until this point.

Before it is too late, the other states of South Asia must assess the dangers and consequences of such an Indian hegemonic order.