By TON Research Section

The upswing of regional impact in the post-unipolar world has changed the orientation of world politics overall. India’s regional desires are derived from the rise of right-wing Hindutva (radical Hinduism) at the start of this century and its political aspiration to regain its lost prestige after British colonial masters in the subcontinent. The religious and cultural extremist Hindutva forces have challenged and threatened the very fabric of India's secular state system. The minorities, chiefly Muslims were intimidated by the radical militant Hindutva forces to eliminate other religious beliefs and make India exclusively a Hindu state.

Peace and prosperity at home and having a peaceful neighborhood are the major features contributing to acquiring a place across the globe. Any country with disturbing neighborhoods would not be able to achieve the dream of stable growth at home as sharing borders is much more than sharing terrestrial borders. It involves socio-political contact with the neighboring countries. India has continuously been thoughtful longing to launch its predominance in South Asia and since its independence from British in 1947; the main objective of Indian foreign policy is to act upon the goal of becoming a regional force and wants that it should be acknowledged by other states in the region as a whole.

In the South region's geography and demography, most inter-state disputes reflect a series of bilateral disagreements with India.  The phenomenon of internal polarizations into international disputes is not confined to Pakistan and India only but the whole south Asian region. India intimidated all its neighbors in one or another way regarding its controversial territorial issues since independence. After the partition of British India in 1947 India illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan claimed the entirety of the former Muslim majority princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Since then it is a deadly dispute over the region that escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes.

Over the years, it has had boundary issues with Banglades, un-demarcated boundaries with Myanmar, the dispute between the land in Kabaw Valley near Hollenphai village, Moreh of Manipur state, India and Namphalong village, Tamu of Sagaing Region and border issue with Bhutan, and lately with China, Aksai Chin area in the northwestern part of the Tibetan Plateau, it is approximately 35,241 sq. km in size, administered by China and part of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. India considers it a part of its union territory of Ladakh. 

The ethnic divide in Sri Lanka has long had an Indian dimension and its maritime boundary dispute with Sri Lanka on Katchatheevu an uninhabited island of 235 acres. Nepal has often flared up into tensions with India; Kala Pani is an area under territorial dispute in Darchula District of Sudurpashchim Pradesh, Nepal, and Pithoragarh District of Uttarakhand, India, area 400 square km. The story of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan agreement, leading to a rather unsuccessful campaign by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) for suppressing the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, is well known. Indeed it is a complex ongoing story, the issue is nevertheless explosive, both in its domestic and international dimensions, in both countries. The leading events in Tamil Nadu became the reason for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and changes in the electoral fortunes of several Tamil Nadu parties among them; illustrate the strained relations of both countries.

 Bangladesh has also internal issues likely to figure on the bilateral agenda with India, except the hardy perennial of the Hindu—Muslim divide, common to all states in the Indo-Gangetic—Brahmputra valleys and more recently the influx of Chakma refugees to India. There are territorial disputes between Bangladesh and India, the center of the disputes on of territory in the Berubari Union, a tiny new island thrown up by physical changes and the delimitation of economic zones in the Bay of Bengal. The dividing waters of the River Ganges between India and Bangladesh after the completion of the Farrakha barrage are one of the main disputes among both countries.

The common benefit of the peoples of the entire valleys in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan has been affected by Indian conflicting and controversial roles. So far as Indo Bhutan and Indo-Nepal relations are concerned, crises-cross. It is a pattern that obtains throughout the region. In theory, this could be turned into an advantage by adopting a regional approach. The fact, however, is that regional identity is strangely conspicuous by its weakness. The most peripheral areas of historical India worked loose from the center. Inheritors of the center are wary of those who broke away and fear their ganging up against themselves—an unhappy possibility implied in a regional approach. Hence India's preferred bilateral methodology seems to emphasize divisions rather than unities. For the rest, old India's frontiers have moved in all directions. What is directly related is the interaction of two forces a series of felt internal disunities among ethnic identities in each successor state of the British Indian Empire are getting mixed up in intra-regional disputes. This threatens modern state structures as well as regional harmony in south Asia. Ensuring stable regional peace requires much hard work to resolve these polarities. The other element is the intellectual appreciation of the benefits of regional amity and cooperation. The example of the EC has inspired so many regional cooperation experiments.

However, in the case of SAARC, India is also using this platform for getting its nefarious designs obsessed with its quest to control the region and uphold the hegemony in many ways. The surviving economic and military force is not an assurance to attain the status of regional or global power, principally in a condition where neighboring countries are not ready to approve the influence and legitimacy of the major power holder. Despite India’s phenomenal economic growth and military development, the rise of china and the growing hold on South Asia is providing a much required significant balance of power in the region.