Southeast Asia is full of testimonies of deep historical and cultural linkages with India. Before the region even had a name, Europeans knew the lands beyond India proper as Farther India. The islands off the continent were known as the Indies. Brahmanic rites were central to royal courts across Southeast Asia, while kings in both ancient Cambodia and central India went by the same name: Jayavarman. To appreciate the material evidence, we only need to marvel at the artifacts and the great temples, whether well preserved or in ruins, from the Golden Tara statue excavated in Mindanao in 1917 to the vast temple complex of Bagan in Myanmar.
In modern times, however, these links have become progressively less binding. At one time, the common struggle for independence in India and most of Southeast Asia gave rise to felt kinship among the anti-colonial leaders. Determined to lead an independent foreign policy that befitted their newly independent countries, leading figures like Jawaharlal Nehru of India, U Nu of Burma, Sukarno of Indonesia, Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh from Vietnam came together in 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia, to found the Non-Aligned Movement. However, culture, history and good will were no match for the consequences of the raging Cold War. Divergent ideologies created a wide gap between socialist India and Southeast Asian countries allied with the West.
By the end of the Cold War, geopolitics again changed regional priorities. In Southeast Asia, the main concern was to forge the ASEAN community, initially by five founding member states, and later expanded to include five more. In time, cognizant of the impact of globalization and the need for allies, ASEAN formed partnerships with its regional neighbors, including India. Nevertheless, for some time, India seems to have overlooked the importance of ASEAN, in terms of political influence and economic opportunities. For years, its Look East policy seemed set just on East Asia.
Even now, the push and pull factors undergirding ASEAN-India ties have yet to be productively identified. Almost a decade after the ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement was finally signed in 2009, India remains ASEAN’s tenth-largest trading partner and only Vietnam regularly appears on India’s top-ten trading partner list. This is underwhelming given the close distance between them and in contrast to China’s perennial spot on the top-five trading partner list of every country in Southeast Asia.
Today, India is clearly courting Southeast Asians, as our first Spotlight article written by the New Straits Times correspondent in New Delhi details. Later this month, the leaders of all ten ASEAN countries are slated to arrive in New Delhi to attend a summit commemorating the 25th anniversary of relations between India and its Southeast Asian neighbors, and as special guests at India’s Republic Day celebration. Yet, as our second Spotlight articles suggests, there is lingering doubt on the part of ASEAN towards India. The question is whether India’s intention in forging closer ties with Southeast Asia is genuine, or is it just part of India’s strategy to counter the growing influence in the region of China, its principal rival in Asia.
