Coping With China-india Rivalry: South Asian Dilemmas

Although China has been an important external actor in South Asia since the middle of the last century, it is only in the 21st century that China became a decisive influence on the region's evolution. The emergence of China as the world's second largest economy had naturally made it the largest trading partner for most of the South Asian countries. China's rapid military modernisation, facilitated by its expansive economic growth, had a major impact on the region's security politics. China's political and diplomatic weight is now visible sharply not only in the economic, foreign and security policies of the South Asian nations but also in their domestic politics. Meanwhile, India has emerged, albeit at a slower pace than China, as a major power over the last two decades. Like Beijing, New Delhi's geopolitical aspirations too have steadily risen during that period. This has set the stage for growing strategic friction between the India and China. The friction has enveloped many regional and global domains, but its greatest expression has been in the shared South Asian neighbourhood. India is determined to sustain its traditional primacy in the region and China is determined to consolidate its growing influence in South Asia. The sharpening friction has also begun to intersect with the growing great power tensions, especially between the United States and China. Many elements of these new dynamic have drawn academic engagement, in particular from the major power perspectives. However, the voices of the smaller South Asian nations have not been sufficiently heard or analysed. This volume seeks to address that major gap in the current discourse on the Indian subcontinent and its changing role in great power politics. This volume brings multiple regional voices to assess how the various South Asian nations are dealing with the growing rivalry between India and China. Many of the chapters in this volume were initially published as shorter essays by the Institute of South Asian Studies in its South Asia Discussion Papers series in 2020. Those essays have been updated and expanded in this volume. Additional contributions have also been commissioned to enrich the special perspectives that this volume presents.

Professor C Raja Mohan is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS). He was the Director of ISAS, from May 2018 to December 2021. He was Professor of South Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Professor Mohan is one of India's leading commentators on India's foreign policy. He has been associated with a number of think tanks in New Delhi, including the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, the Centre for Policy Research and the Observer Research Foundation. He was also the founding director of Carnegie India, New Delhi ― the sixth international centre of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC. He was the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in International Affairs at the United States Library of Congress, Washington DC, from 2009 to 2010. He served on India's National Security Advisory Board. He led the Indian Chapter of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from 1999 to 2006.

He writes a regular column for the Indian Express and was earlier the Strategic Affairs Editor for The Hindu, Chennai. He is on the editorial boards of a number of Indian and international journals on world politics.

Professor Mohan has a Master's degree in nuclear physics and a PhD in international relations. Among his recent books is Samudra Manthan: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific (2013) and Modi's World: Expanding India's Sphere of Influence (2015).

Mr Hernaikh Singh is a Deputy Director at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Previously, he was an Associate Director at the International Office at Singapore Management University, overseeing the South Asian, Southeast Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Central Asian regions. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry from 2010 to 2012. He also held various appointments at the Singapore International Foundation between 1994 and 2004. He started his career at the then-Singapore Trade Development Board (now International Enterprise Singapore) in 1989.

Hernaikh has been contributing papers and publishing from time to time. In 2020, he co-authored a paper on 'Maritime Security of ASEAN States in the Indo-Pacific: Engagement with Extra-Regional Powers' for the publication, Security and Economic Challenges in the Indo-Pacific, which was brought out by the Consortium of South Asian Think Tanks and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. His recent co-edited book, India On Our Minds, was published by World Scientific in December 2021, in which he also contributed the chapter on 'Nalanda University in India: Reviving Ancient Glory'. He is currently working on another co-edited book tentatively titled ASEAN-India: Tryst with Destiny?, which is scheduled to be published in the second half of 2022.

Hernaikh has been contributing papers and publishing from time to time. In 2020, he co-authored a paper on 'Maritime Security of ASEAN States in the Indo-Pacific: Engagement with Extra-Regional Powers' for the publication, Security and Economic Challenges in the Indo-Pacific, which was brought out by the Consortium of South Asian Think Tanks and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. His recent co-edited book, India On Our Minds, was published by World Scientific in December 2021, in which he also contributed the chapter on 'Nalanda University in India: Reviving Ancient Glory'. He is currently working on another co-edited book tentatively titled ASEAN-India: Tryst with Destiny?, which is scheduled to be published in the second half of 2022.