India and China competition in South Asia- a historical excursion of their diplomatic relation with India’s immediate neighbours

Much of India’s relation with its immediate neighbours is crucial to the Indian Foreign Policy and has security implications for it. India has always desired to have peaceful and stable relations with its neighbours. In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September, 2014, P.M. Narendra Modi emphasized that the Indian government gives it highest priority on maintaining a peacefully relation in its neighbourhood. He stated that “a nation’s destiny is linked to its neighbourhood”. With many of its neighbours India has had civilizational ties, religious and cultural exchanges and security linkages. Hence, they are vital for the regional security. However, many of these nations have always tried to maintain a policy of “safe distance” in order to avoid interdependence on India. As Marshall Singer puts it, “India is a major power and the paramount power in the region. Anything India does or does not do, in any situation, is going to have some impact on that situation”. China’s growing financial muscle has enabled it to expand its influence in the South Asian region, especially in the Indian neighbourhood through funding infrastructural projects. Thus, we observe Chinese creeping through developmental programs in South Asia. China is always known for its “tight fist” policy, it investment for the purpose of multiple gains- economic, strategic and monetary. China’s sudden benevolence towards India’s neighbours, perhaps is a plan of its geostrategic dimension towards India. This quandary can also be viewed through the prism of Indian mythological tradition, which may help in elucidating and finding resolution to it.