India’s Act East Policy

Abstract

The Look East Policy emerged in the 1990s as a continuation of India’s prior efforts to forge a collective Pan-Asian identity capable of sustaining itself as an alternative power bloc. The idea of developing it as an official policy stemmed from the economic circumstances of a time when the neoliberal paradigm had grown to be seen as the supreme economic model in India and beyond. Northeast India was only later included in the policy when the region began to be envisioned as a pivot to East Asian countries and, in so doing, benefit from the positive externalities of economic trade. In assessing the financial and strategic implications of the Act East Policy, the chapter argues that the policy has become critical for India in terms of its foreign policy as India hopes to become a reliable ally for Southeast Asian countries seeking to minimise Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The chapter further demonstrates how, despite New Delhi’s development rhetoric, the policy has thus far failed to produce the promised economic gains for the Northeastern region. While the policy nominally focuses on development, in practise, the policy serves to build a transnational market passing through the Northeast, even as the region continues to remain India’s highest militarised periphery.