India’s evolving role as the ‘net security provider’ of the Indian Ocean region

Abstract

The unveiling of the Indo-Pacific strategy by USA has clubbed the two separate worlds-The Pacific and the Indian Ocean region- together, mingling the geopolitics of the two regions. This is done in the context of the growing maritime role of China along with her growing naval potentials. On the other hand, India, considered an important partner of the Indo-Pacific geopolitics, is lately taking extra care about her maritime interests in her immediate maritime neighbourhood, the Indian Ocean region (IOR). This activeness can be credited to the ‘Chinese intrusion’ in the Indian maritime neighbourhood. The role of India as the ‘net security provider’ of the IOR is resurfacing in the strategic corridors of New Delhi in the context of India’s unveiling of the Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) mission and her growing active role in the bilateral as well as multilateral maritime relations. In this context it becomes imperative to analyse the character of India’s Indian Ocean policy in retrospect in order to construe India’s potentials and preferences in the current Indo-Pacific geopolitics where she is undoubtedly an important player. India has been playing the role of net security provider of the IOR for quite some time now. Initially taking a non-combative defensive approach to the issue throughout the 1960s, India gradually turned assertive in the 1980s to safeguard her interests in the maritime zone. India, who inherited the baton from the British, was in two minds over how to maintain the dominance. Shedding off defensive mood, she turned assertive later to safeguard her interest in the IOR against ‘external intrusion’. After the Cold War, India shifted to collaborative approach without compromising with her prime Indian Ocean policy motto to maintain her pre-eminence in the region.