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CIAO DATE: 08/05
Deducing India’s Grand Strategy Of Regional Hegemony From Historical And Conceptual Perspectives
Manjeet Singh Pardesi
April 2005
Abstract
This paper seeks to answer if a rising India will repeat the pattern of all rising great powers since the Napoleonic times by attempting regional hegemony. This research deduces India’s grand strategy of regional hegemony from historical and conceptual perspectives. The underlying assumption is that even though India has never consciously and deliberately pursues a grand strategy, its historical experience and geo-strategic environment have substantially conditioned its security behaviour and desired goals. To this extent, this research develops a theoretical framework to analyse grand strategy. This framework is then applied to five pan-Indian powers—the Mauryas, the Guptas, the Mughals, British India and the Republic of India—to understand their security behavior.
It is discerned that all the five pan-Indian powers studied have demonstrated trends that display remarkable continuity in their security behavior. These trends can then be said to constitute India’s grand strategic paradigm and include—(1) A realist drive towards power maximisation due to structural reasons, including the use of force when necessary, under the veneer of morality; (2) Strategic autonomy in its security affairs and strategic unity of South Asia through an attempt to establish regional hegemony in the subcontinent; (3) Warfare as a part of statecraft as opposed to the exclusive realm of the military, and with a tendency to dominate, assimilate or accommodate opponents, as opposed to decisively destroying them; (4) A defensive strategic orientation against extra-regional powers and with a strategic orientation of ‘offensive defense’ in the subcontinent; and (5) A remarkable ability to gradually adapt to changing political and military trends while remaining consistent in the four strategic trends mentioned above.
On the basis of these trends it is concluded that a rising India will behave in accordance with the core features of the theory of offensive realism. As India becomes wealthy, it will work towards maximising its political and military power; will avoid alliances with curb its strategic autonomy; will seek regional hegemony with South Asian and the Indian Ocean Region, and will resist extra-regional influence in these regions; and will see to become an extra-regional power in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.
