India’s subregional connectivity initiatives: re-imagining the neighborhood

Geopolitical interests and concerns motivate India’s renewed push for subregional connectivity. The evolving subregional approach aims at re-integrating India’s immediate neighborhood with the aim of protecting New Delhi’s traditional regional primacy. Historically, the Partition of the Indian subcontinent terminated a well-connected common space. Decades after its independence, India has turned toward reconnecting with its immediate neighbors clustered in subregions in the changing geopolitical context. India’s subregional approach has emerged as a key area of foreign policy priority. This paper attempts to map out India’s evolving subregional approach and explicates the strategic rationale behind it. Even as India has pushed to expand subregional connectivity, there are both domestic as well as external challenges. The article examines how India has been addressing some of the major hurdles underlining their policy implications. First, the conceptual underpinnings of India’s evolving subregional approach are explicated followed by an analysis of the factors driving this push. Subsequently, key subregional projects initiated by India are discussed. Finally, the challenges facing India in managing subregional initiatives are examined.