India Must Look Southwards To Curtail Chinese Incursions
- In Foreign Policy
- 12:58 AM, Jul 05, 2016
- Dr. Lavanya Vemsani
News of Chinese incursions on India’s northern borders has become a regular feature of daily news in India in the recent years and this is taken a step further in its opposition for India’s entry in to the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group). This leads India watchers and defense analysts proposing grand theories on how India must increase its defense spending for protection of its northern borders. Even though it is important for India to strengthen its northern defense systems by mounting forces in the north, it is twice as much important strategically to focus on its south to improve its geo-political status. The northern defense might give India its semblance of safety and security, but the southern defense would give it a definitive advantage, which it needs for international leadership.
India’s recent failure to join NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) is another evidence of China’s skillful foreign strategy. News about Brexit and India’s debacle at NSG should help India forge new course ahead in Indian foreign policy with regard to its neighbors. NSG debacle is illustrative of the fact that India is only paying minimal attention to its own geographical neighborhood in Asia and Africa. No one denies the fact that it is important to have favorable alliances with the West, but at the same time it is also of utmost strategic importance for India to focus on its stature in its geo-strategic co-operation in the Asian region. It is time for India to reconsider its geo-political strategy placing Indian Ocean strategy at the center of it overall foreign relations outlook.
It is true that India will enter NSG eventually, and that the Chinese led opposition to its membership into NSG could only prevent it temporarily. However, India must take this opportunity to refocus its geo-political and diplomatic strategy accordingly. There are two reasons for such a step: firstly, that the western and Eurozone strategic relations are fast changing and evolving as a result of Brexit and secondly, that India must reclaim its strategic superiority in the Indian Ocean region, which was its main prerogative to its historical greatness in the past. I will leave Brexit to my next article and discuss the historical precedents for India’s maritime strategy here in the following paragraphs before concluding with the application of Kautilyan strategy below.
It is helpful to look at history to understand the advantages of southern strategy. For example the Gupta era (golden age or classical age of India) and the Chola era are noted for their maritime explorations and expansion. The Gupta overseas empire is lost to history, although its cultural influence remains. There is more historical evidence for Chola influence. Cholas were the first empire to develop a naval force to venture on the Oceans. Cholas extended their power to Mauritius, Srilanka, and the Srivijaya Empire. The Chola Empire had expanded so much that the Chinese Song Empire established direct diplomatic and trade relations with India through negotiating with the Cholas.
In fact, the influence of India was so dominant that the historians had to coin a special term to aptly describe the phenomenon of extending Gupta influence overseas: the ‘theater state’. Another term coined by historians is the ‘southernization’, to understand India’s tremendous influence overseas. Southernization is noted as a precursor to the westernization. All in all history shows that India’s tremendous influence is felt across the seas between 3-1200 C.E. that historians needed to coin special terms to explain the phenomenon. Whatever the reasons behind this expanding sphere of India’s influence in the past it shows the way forward for India to follow for the future. India should not ignore the maritime relations of its ancestors.
India should renew its southern outlook and establish previous relations with nations encompassing the Indian Ocean on its eastern and western shores. In this regard, it is time for India to reread Kautilya’s Arthasastra (Book 6. Ch. 2 specifically) and plan its foreign relations and geo-political strategy with a view to surround itself with mitramandala (circle of friends). Friends of friends as well as friends of no so much of friends could be members of this circle of friends (mitramandala). Kautilya warns that immediate neighbors of a state could not be friends since there might always be border disputes, but its neighbors could be friends. Hence, India could have difficulty forging friendship with China, but it must look towards the neighbors of China especially across the seas, because India traditionally had successful strategic relations with these states.
China is expanding its influence across the Indian Ocean through soft power diplomacy as well as highhanded tactics as seen in the case of its South China Sea policy, which attracted international attention. China’s explicit opposition to India’s membership to NSG can be seen in this context of expanding strategic alliances of China. It is notable that Afghanistan joined China on this issue, which otherwise touts its friendship with India internally, but does the opposite externally. If not viewed in this context of geo-strategic policy, it is hard to understand Afghanistan’s stand on South China Sea.
The South China Sea issue is currently in the international court in Hague awaiting final arbitration. India has not made it position publicly known. A small Island nation such as Vanuatu joined with China in supporting its South China Sea policy, so did Afghanistan. This is the right moment for India to support Philippines and also expand its role in the Indian Ocean zone. Kautilya would definitely approve of such a move.
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