India and its Neighbourhood

Pratip Chattopadhyay

Neighbourhood in international relations is a nomenclature that is given to that geopolitical space which has a common history, culture and civilisational linkages and proximate borders. Neighbourhood is a contested space in South Asia due to a chequered history of partition and geopolitical tensions. The living problems related to borders and cultural connectivity make South Asian neighbourhood a perennial flashpoint of animosity and tension where normal bilateral and multilateral engagements never occur smoothly and continuously. Diplomacy of the post-colonial nation-states that comprise South Asian neighbourhood space is guided by geopolitical historical legacies of psychological baggage as well as existing regional and global balance of political and economic power dynamics. In this context India’s approach to its South Asian neighbourhood has always been influenced by historical tendencies and contemporary requirements. Therefore India although being the biggest geopolitical space in the South Asian neighbourhood could neither create a permanent neighbourhood policy for South Asia nor develop a systematic neighbourhood culture in South Asia. The absence of a neighbourhood culture of togetherness and belonging in South Asia is matched with presence of an equal culture of politics (attitude driven by interest), possession (attitude driven by reimagination over border) and power (attitude driven by eagerness to connect with extra-regional power). India’s relationship with neighbours has traversed a full cycle from the approach in 1958 to that in 2025 which is to define neighbours going beyond geographical proximity by including both immediate, distant and even far away nation-states keeping in mind cultural, civilisational and political linkages. This inclination on part of India to view neighbourhood as a broad spectrum of attitudinal linkages beyond geographical linkages has created apprehension among immediate neighbours of India in South Asia about its intention to create everlasting bonding with them. This apprehension about intention has created a systemic dystopia in the imagination of South Asian nation-states about the neighbourhood space. Such a situation is fall out of the nature and practice of foreign policy of the South Asian nation-states. Foreign policy of these nation-states including India is created in a post-colonial setting with a focus on internal development rather than external exchanges in immediate neighbourhood. Even after creating a basic developmental milieu the habit of being in touch with extra-regional nation-states for aid and other benefits as in immediate independence period continued. Among the foreign policies of South Asian nation-states, Indian foreign policy has always been under scanner both in South Asian and western media. In Indian foreign policy psyche the initial exuberance with neighbourly relation evaporated with the sudden unilateral Chinese attack in 1962. Thereafter India was in search for opportunity to establish its regional presence and assistance to Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 provided that. However, this episode of India’s regional emergence was perceived by smaller neighbours of India as the height of expression of its dominating presence. The result of this impression among its immediate neighbours is an idea of big brother presence in India and initiated the formation of SAARC in 1985. Indian foreign policy mandarins irrespective of such perception went ahead with sending peacekeeping mission in Sri Lanka in 1988 that accentuated the negative image of crafting a muscular foreign policy by India in the neighbourhood. With the end of Cold War the entire South Asian neighbourhood was seen as a strategic space by the United States with its aim to consolidate its influence in the region vis-a-vis Chinese strategy of string of pearls to encircle India (not only encircling India as a geographical space but also encircling the liberal democratic secular idea). Indian foreign policy mission in post-Cold War period tried to gain some ground in its immediate neighbourhood through policy of non-reciprocity vide Gujral Doctrine and then Prime Minister Vajpayee’s transport and sports diplomacy. It is another research question and matter of different discussion whether such policy stances were intended to instil confidence among neighbours or lessen the impact of China’s influence. In the midst of 9/11 incident and the bandwagoning of liberal ethos of international order, India started floating it’s economic and political diplomacy by engaging and spearheading some important multilaterals and plurilaterals like IBSA, BRICS, BIMSTEC. Between 2004 and 2014 India again reoriented it’s neighbourhood strategy followed by the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack with remembrance of 2001 terrorist attack in Parliament. Such reorientation attempt was coupled with India’s aspiration to be at the global high table of diplomacy for which it went beyond domestic political chaos to ink Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal. However, all these aspect of extra-region looking Indian foreign policy was matched in a lukewarm manner with its rhetoric of friendly policy towards immediate neighbours vis-a-vis its economic engagement with South East Asia reflected in groupings like India–ASEAN Dialogue forum. While throughout the entire period of Cold War, foreign policy was value-based (non-aligned) and neighbourhood diplomacy was half-hearted, in post-Cold War period foreign policy of India till 2014 was multilateral (multipolarity) and diplomacy was one of maintaining balance in neighbourhood to restrict drift of neighbours away towards China. So it can be said diplomacy of India from 1947 to 2014 towards South Asia is a story of swing between Pakistan-centricity and China-centricity.

With coming of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, Indian foreign policy has diversified and matured with widespread presence in world affairs not in multilaterals only but also in bilateral from land to marine from aerospace to agricultural knowledge sharing. Diplomatic order of the world soon changed its course with Donald Trump as President of the United States and Chinese President stretching tenure of office to lifelong along with the offensive postures of Russian President Putin. In the South Asian backyard India under Prime Minister Modi started with “breakthrough diplomacy” of “Neighbourhood First” by inviting leaders from South Asia in swearing-in ceremony in his first term and then inviting BIMSTEC members in swearing-in ceremony in his second term. Between 2014 and 2024 India primarily invested much of its goodwill diplomacy in neighbourhood but it backfired with terrorist attacks from Pakistan, with allegations from Nepal about highhandedness in drafting it’s 2015 Constitution, with anti-Indian sentiment escalating in Bangladesh even after the bonhomie of swanali odhyay (golden era) of 2021 marking 50th year of bilateral, with anti-Indian sentiment becoming political issue in Maldives and Bhutan still not totally committed to strategic bonhomie with India and the Taliban dispensation in Afghanistan is far from establishing diplomatic tie ups. Indian foreign policy in post-COVID world order emerged as a major supplier of essential commons during and after lockdown, re-energised ties with African continent with regular India–Africa summits, reconnecting with “diasporas” by celebrating Provasi Bharatiya Divas, linking strategically with small island nations of Indo-Pacific by extending lines of credit, crafting a non-compromising national interest-based stance on global policy issues rooted in civilisational heritage and putting up a new diplomatic order where Bharatiya mode of democratic rule-based approach is given credence. The change that has taken place both in Indian foreign policy and diplomacy is that of approach where non-appeasement instead of non-alignment rules and hence India is flexible in maintaining multialignment.

The COVID pandemic period ushered a new image of atmnanirbhar or self-reliant India to the world and more so to its immediate and extended neighbourhood due to its ability to produce vaccines and sending them to all nation-states in times of need. So India foreign policy in post-COVID world order is not only a receiver of global norms and aids but also as a producer of global requirements. Consequently India’s diplomacy changed its orientation to adopt a managerial role in global politics shedding the past mode of being at the receiving end. Today global problems need India-designed solutions as was exemplified in the way G20 Delhi Declaration curated way to have “goals” that are already been made feasible in Indian setting like Digital Public Infrastructure, Lifestyle for Sustainable Development, Women-led Development and advances in AI-based research. In this moment of India taking a leading role in world politics, it is very important to understand how India perceives it’s immediate neighbourhood and how India’s immediate neighbourhood perceives India. The post-COVID world order in 2025 is a space where inward attention is the norm of nation-states from the United States to China. Even Russia’s so-called aggression is a fall out of its attention to rebuild the former Soviet Union. Hardly today any nation-states are eager to share global commons and are in a withdrawal mode. In this context India has a task to manage and secure its borders which inter alia forces it to be concerned in the happenings in its immediate neighbourhood. But whenever it gets concerned and put its views on the issues of turmoil in the immediate neighbourhood with any of its bordering nation-states the lingering spectre of “Big Brother” syndrome crops up. Even when it tries to invest in immediate neighbouring countries or steps in with bucket of aid the domestic political constituency in immediate neighbourhood scrutinises it critically. So the basic question is how India should engage them diplomatically and the new possible avenues of diplomacy that India could undertake to build confidence and build a strategic culture of unity with geoeconomic imperative. This edited volume with nineteen important chapters along with a concluding section for future roadmap of India’s neighbourhood diplomacy is a humble attempt in that direction.