India’s Foreign Policy and Economic Challenges: Friends, Enemies and Controversies

249 Pages·2023·3.915 MB·English

by  Silvio Beretta, Axel Berkofsky, Giuseppe Iannini

Global Power Shift
Silvio Beretta
Axel Berkofsky
Giuseppe Iannini   Editors
India’s
Foreign Policy
and Economic
Challenges
Friends, Enemies and Controversies
Global Power Shift
Series Editor
Xuewu Gu, Center for Global Studies, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Managing Editor
Hendrik W. Ohnesorge, Center for Global Studies, University of Bonn, Bonn,
Germany
Advisory Editors
G. John Ikenberry, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Canrong Jin, Renmin University of Beijing, Beijing, China
Srikanth Kondapalli, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Beate Neuss, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Carla Norrlof, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Dingli Shen, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Kazuhiko Togo, Kyoto Sanyo University, Tokyo, Japan
Roberto Zoboli, Catholic University of Milan, Milano, Italy
Ample empirical evidence points to recent power shifts in multiple areas of interna-
tional relations taking place between industrialized countries and emerging powers,
as well as between states and non-state actors. However, there is a dearth of theoret-
ical interpretation and synthesis of these findings, and a growing need for coherent
approaches to understand and measure the transformation. The central issues to be
addressed include theoretical questions and empirical puzzles: How can studies of
global power shift and the rise of ‘emerging powers’ benefit from existing theories,
and which alternative aspects and theoretical approaches might be suitable? How
can the meanings, perceptions, dynamics, and consequences of global power shift be
determined and assessed? This edited series will include highly innovative research
on these topics. It aims to bring together scholars from all major world regions as
well as different disciplines, including political science, economics and human geog-
raphy. The overall aim is to discuss and possibly blend their different approaches
and provide new frameworks for understanding global affairs and the governance of
global power shifts.
All titles in this series are peer-reviewed.
This book series is indexed in Scopus.
· ·
Silvio Beretta Axel Berkofsky Giuseppe Iannini
Editors
India’s Foreign Policy
and Economic Challenges
Friends, Enemies and Controversies
Editors
Silvio Beretta Axel Berkofsky
Department of Political and Social Sciences Department of Political and Social Sciences
University of Pavia University of Pavia
Pavia, Italy Pavia, Italy
Giuseppe Iannini
Department of Political and Social Sciences
University of Pavia
Pavia, Italy
ISSN 2198-7343 ISSN 2198-7351 (electronic)
Global Power Shift
ISBN 978-3-031-20269-8 ISBN 978-3-031-20270-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20270-4
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword
India at Core of the Indo-Pacific Space, the Western Waters
of the Indian Ocean and Inner Asia: A Timeless Open Space.
What Changed after Independence?
The Indian Independence Act (15th August, 1947) anticipated the independence
promised by former British Prime Minister Clement Richard Attlee for June 1948,
and gave life to two independent entities: the Indian Union, which included 25 states,
and Pakistan, composed of four provinces and an eastern territory: Bangladesh.
The dawn of independence was stained with blood and signed with the blood of
ethnic and religious strife, revolts against the British unilateral dictate, individual
political ambitions and territorial disputes like the one in Kashmir—a dispute that
remains unresolved until the present day. Indian independence resulted in an unbal-
anced political and diplomatic situation, which from the very beginning stood in the
way of negotiations and diplomacy between India and Pakistan. It is misguided to
view the present as an unicum per se, i.e. two regional nuclear powers concerned
exclusively with boundaries, religious supremacy, and economic-technological aspi-
rations in an allegedly ‘globalized’ world. A world and space characterised by an
impending eco-systemic transition and a dominating digitalized reality transforming
it into a new ‘liquid’ and digitalized space—one increasingly beyond human control.1
Today, we are confronted with a dimension in which the ‘strategic factor’ dominates
in the realms of economic power and individual economic interests, both regional and
global. A space in which the term and definition of ‘superpower’ has to be viewed
against the background of a new ‘global’ vision of space, frontiers and security,
defined by a multiplicity of factors, which often are viewed as abstract and time-
less assumptions beyond traditional geographic spaces and frontiers of the twentieth
century and the first two decades of this millennium. They are the threshold of an
impending future, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, human, social and economic
1 In this context the economic and social, ethno-anthropological analysis by C. Giaccardi & M.
Magatti, Supersocietà. Ha ancora senso parlare di libertà? Il Mulino, Bologna 2022.
v
vi Foreword
disasters, innovative communication methods and instruments, and the proliferation
of armed conflicts.
We are confronted with a dimension that is dominated by a new paradigm,
which tries to put at its centre the ‘people’ and their welfare. The ‘people’ become
the central (but imaginary) actor of international relations. They are regarded as a
major element of political affairs, as victims of natural catastrophes and/or imposed
political-economic and strategic choices, or as a force to overthrow external pres-
sures, threats and violence. A dimension exalted by media and digital platforms
of communication. Neither India nor Pakistan are immune to all of this. However,
against this background and in the context of India-Pakistan bilateral realities, it is
possible to perceive the tenuous lines of a political-administrative tradition that has
its roots in the deep humus of a local culture, which has survived the evanescence
of the present and the upcoming digital and robotic reality. For example, traditional
family fortunes, bonds between wealthy families, links between the country’s elites
and officials and bureaucrats who above all govern and administer the country on
behalf of the elites. Undoubtedly, these are still very alive and kicking and closely
linked to new visions of global power (economic and financial) and security (hard
more than soft security). A system that leaves its mark in the Indian Union as much
as it does in Pakistan (for example, in the shape of the constitutional position of tribes
and family-forms in Pakistan and religious groupings and casts in India).
What has changed since India’s independence? Put bluntly, very little. Beyond
remarkable technological and scientific progress, beyond a westernized and highly
educated elite, beyond densely populated towns with their suburbs and miserable
dwellings, beyond skyscrapers and magnificent pompous buildings, beyond sophis-
ticated constitutions and sophisticated constitutional amendments improving demo-
cratic governance and democratic elections, the financial-administrative interplay of
power follows the same rules than in the past. Nowadays and in Indian on-the-ground
realities and dynamics, these traditional forces continue to be present and influential.
Lucrative public service jobs and the responsibility for collecting the revenues of
no less lucrative economic and agricultural business are in the hands of traditional
groups helping those in power to stay in power. A global albeit still liquid space
moving towards new targets? Within this global-liquid stage and its visions, there
are however some factors that should be considered: a society still close to its tradi-
tions, to bonds of religiously dominant elements (either Muslim, Sunni and Shi‘i, or
Hindu, Zoroastrian, Buddhist and other), a society close to the bonds of traditional
‘clientelism’ and its dynamics, to traditional administrative and social practices, and
a traditional management of power and force (‘force’ as in the armed forces and the
country’s nuclear arsenal).
However, it is possible to hope and strive for development and some changes: the
social forces and their affiliations. The latter are presently evolving, standing for inno-
vation with innovative forces of this millennium. They are increasingly incorporated
into their fabric of modernity and future: a sort of middle class of well-educated young
male and female citizens. They pertain to a new reality dominated by economic and
strategic factors, in which the ‘liquid space’ is made up of idealism, where ‘global
space’ is the dimension of the future, a reality, which is already relentlessly imposing
Foreword vii
its rules onto society. Young male and female citizens, who are emerging and forging
a connection with the old aristocracy and power structures and their leaders in the
name of the ‘people’ and social-economic justice. So far so good, but tensions persist
and come to the forefront every now and then through a skilled manipulation of the
public opinion, and the political polarisation of conflicts (like that of Kashmir).
What and where is the Indo-Pacific space? The Western waters of the Indian
Ocean? Inner Asia? From an Asian perspective, these are mere Western definitions
moulded by ‘foreigners’ and foreign powers since the sixteenth century. Definitions,
which mirror foreign, extraneous strategic interests and their concept and ideas of
conceptions. India’s new generation largely disregards such definitions. Pragmati-
cally, it aims at positioning the country within a new dimension forged by the present
and its forces, challenging the impending future. However, traditional leaderships do
not disregard such ‘alien’ definitions. Nor does the army. The armed forces are
always prepared to subtly tackle the various international forces and their alliances,
ready to grasp from them renewed support, power and advantages—not taking into
account and indeed ignoring, what the new generations want and strive for.
This is the post-1947 Indian Union with its rich cultural heritage and peaks of
splendour, with its religious strains often mirroring social anxieties, with its social-
political system deeply rooted in past realities and underground forces. India, a
country dominated by perennial tensions that no reforms have ever succeeded to
erase or control, a country in which the economic-administrative factor is still the
dominant power of India’s foreign policy and its numerous regional conflicts. Within
the new dimension of this third millennium, the country’s economic power and reach
gain prominence and become strategic factors and engines for India’s traditional ties
(with the US, Africa and the Gulf countries) and partnerships (regional institutions
and the Commonwealth, for example) and for new strategies (China and Japan). It is
the engine for the reorganization of India’s foreign policy following patterns and a
path targeting global markets and business.
Silvio Beretta, Giuseppe Iannini and Axel Berkofsky have done a brilliant job
editing this volume. The volume’s book chapters provide the reader with a compre-
hensive overview of India’s foreign policy, depicting a reality, which goes far beyond
contingent times and frontiers’ spaces. The chapters mirror the developing essence
of this third millennium with its new global-liquid spaces, and, within it, the multi-
faceted kernel of the Indian ‘continent’, its strategic and military positioning, poli-
cies and diplomacy. The analysis of India’s foreign policies, its interactions with
the country’s close and not-so-close neighbours and the analysis of India’s regional
and global economic and trade policies is inevitably not exhaustive. However, the
volume’s authors cover numerous areas and aspects of India’s foreign relations and its
economic and trade interactions with the rest of the world. Axel Berkofsky analyses
India’s relations with China, Filippo Boni those with Pakistan, Giulia Sciorati exam-
ines India’s ties and interactions with the Association of Southeast Asian Countries
(ASEAN), Francesco Mazzucotelli examines the country’s ties with and dealings
in the Middle East, Michelguglielmo Torri examines India’s relations with the US
and Emanuel Mangiarotti is analysing the importance of Kashmir for what she calls
Indian Prime Minister Modi’s ‘ethno-nationalist’ idea of India. Mario Prayer, Silvio
viii Foreword
Beretta, Giuseppe Iannini and Gianluca Rubagotti in turn examine in great detail the
historical and conceptual background of the Indian state and its foreign relations,
India’s involvement and role in regional trade and investment and India’s position
and positing in global trade and investment structures and flows. Finally, the editors
have invited four Indian scholars—Gautam Chikermane, Jagannath Panda, Priyanka
Pandit and Harsh Pant—to provide the reader with Indian perspectives on India’s
overall foreign and security policy strategies, India’s security and defence relations
with Japan, the country’s economic and trade ties with China and India’s reactions to
China’s expanding footprint and influence in the Indo-Pacific Region, respectively.
Valeria Piacentini Fiorani
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Milan, Italy
Contents
Introduction ...................................................... 1
Silvio Beretta, Axel Berkofsky, and Giuseppe Iannini
A Rising India in the Crossfire of Competing Grand Strategies ........ 7
Gautam Chikermane
The Indian State and Its Foreign Relations ........................... 27
Mario Prayer
Rethinking “Interdependence”: The Changing Nature and Context
in India–China Economic Relations ................................. 47
Priyanka Pandit
India: Candidate Player in the Asian Economic Space—Problems
and Perspectives ................................................... 61
Giuseppe Iannini and Silvio Beretta
India and International Trade ...................................... 85
Gianluca Rubagotti
China’s Expanding Footprint in the Indian Ocean Region
and the Indian Pushback ........................................... 107
Harsh V. Pant
India and China—Two Countries Marching the March of Folly ........ 119
Axel Berkofsky
Kashmir as Frontier in Narendra Modi’s Ethno-Nationalist Idea
of India ........................................................... 135
Emanuela Mangiarotti
India’s US Policy 1991–2019: The Gradual Loss of Strategic
Autonomy ........................................................ 149
Michelguglielmo Torri
ix