India and South Asian Regionalism: A Study of India’s Response to the Needs, Demands and Expectations of Smaller States

Abstract

Regionalism generally flourishes around a big power, or a core member state, deemed
to be superior than other members in terms of its size, population, military power, level
of industrial development, economic resources, and advanced administrative and
political system. If its ruling elites are appropriately “responsive” to the needs,
demands, and expectation of other members, it can “serve as a center of attention” for
leadership of less developed partners in a regional cooperative arrangement. Relying
on this theoretical underpinning, this paper aims to survey the needs, demands and
expectations of smaller regional countries (SRCs) towards India, the core member in
SAARC. It also intends to evaluate and analyze Indian stance on South Asian
regionalism and response to the expectations and concerns of others members. The
research is qualitative and analytical for which both primary and secondary sources
have been used. Besides the available books, scholarly articles and research reports
etc., the primary data, i.e. speeches of the leaders of member countries delivered at the
SAARC summits, have been utilized. Thematic analysis method has been used to
generate patterns, make generalizations, and draw conclusions.