Introduction: Indianoceanness and its Indo-Pacific dimensions

Abstract

There is a growing appreciation by both academia and policymakers in the Indian Ocean region, and beyond, that proactively engaging with the wider Indo-Pacific region –a vast maritime region of overlapping sub-regions– is no longer a matter of choice but a necessity. Several contributions to the past editions of the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region (JIOR) have underlined the importance of pluralizing the construct of Indo-Pacific while retaining the exceptionalism of Indianoceanness. There has been a growing acceptance and acknowledgement at the same time that the return and rise of the Indo-Pacific (Doyle & Rumley, 2020) will continue to be perceived differently from diverse geopolitical, geoeconomic and geostrategic locations. A mature and mutually shared understanding of where, how and when national interests converge, and/or diverge, bodes well for the future of multilateralism in general and regional cooperation in particular in this region. What provides unity in the midst of diverse perceptions, policies and positions of multiple stakeholders is the awareness that the maritime domain –as highlighted by the UN Ocean Decade– is a medium that forces us to think innovatively about sovereignty, security and sustainability. Given the very nature of the World Ocean, (in)security and (un)sustainability for anyone and anywhere amounts to (in)security and (un)sustainability for everyone and everywhere. Therefore, a rigid understanding of the inside/outside of maritime regions and sub-regions remains convoluted and contested. Once realized, the awareness of unity in diversity should enable us to map out commonalities and convergences in apparently diverse –at times divergent– national positions on what Indo-Pacific stands –or should stand—for. Sustainable ocean development and effective ocean governance need cooperation across multiple sectors and scales that could –and should— facilitate a new maritime regionalism in the Indian Ocean, with the sub-regional scale playing an important complementary role in ensuring that the living habitat of both humans and non-humans remains free from international discord and geopolitical rivalries. In the commonly shared, forward-looking vision of an open, rule-based, inclusive, peaceful and socially just maritime order for the Indian Ocean and the wider Indo-Pacific space, there are no winners and losers per se. Readers may recall several scholarly contributions published in the past editions of JIOR on a highly complex yet extremely compelling subject of ‘connectivity’, such as in the special issue focusing on the Bay of Bengal (Basu Ray Chaudhury & Chatterji, 2019). What we are dealing with here is a basket of issues related to ‘Contentious Connectivity’ (Gaens & Sinkkonen, 2023). In the ongoing epistemic battle between reductionist accounts of connectivity based on wild generalizations and speculations, and, meticulously researched theoretically robust and empirically engaged case studies, the JIOR remains committed to the pursuit and promotion of the latter. The first contribution to the current edition of JIOR by Pradhan, Rathi and Gupta, ‘Sagarmala & India’s maritime big push approach: seaports as India’s geoeconomic gateways & neighborhood maritime lessons’, offers a detailed and insightful analysis of India’s emerging maritime governance architecture, with special reference to Sagarmala; a project with considerable