The Influence of Mandala Concept in Indian Maritime Interaction in the Indian Ocean

Authors

  • Tharishini Krishnan

Abstract

The Indian Ocean is an important sphere of influence for India for centuries. With this status, at times India is seen as a regional bully and on the other hand projects a status quo posture in the region. These two extreme trajectories create a grey area of knowledge and raise the question of what truly is the structure of Indian maritime interaction pattern with its neighbours. As India’s maritime profile increases, India’s intentions will be questioned and these puzzles needs to be addressed more acutely. An in- depth research on cause and effect relationship of size and foreign policy interaction could reveal a distinguish analysis about India’s communication style with its different neighbours and this will clarify these two-extreme perceptions. On that basis, this paper seeks to examine India’s maritime interaction in the Indian Ocean by coining the general power categories in the study of international relations as Mahabala (big power), Samabala (medium power) and Durbala (small power). These terms are inherited from Sanskrit. It will discuss four role of power that are used as a yardstick in understanding how a state’s power is assessed in the study of international relations. The four roles are: (a) the resource available for the wellbeing of its own nations and for the contributions of other nations, (b) second are primary and secondary responsibilities, (c) the paces or speed to response to an emergency and (e) is the choice of communication. Categorising power and the role of power based on these three clusters will strengthen the conceptualisation of India’s maritime interaction pattern in Indian Ocean and fill the puzzle in this study. The method involved are solely secondary data collection. It is found that with Mahabala interaction, Indian adopts bandwagon but relative gain; with Samabala interaction, adopts collective security but regional supremacy and with Durbala interaction, adopts absolute gain but leadership role

Published

2020-11-01

Issue

Section

Articles