This volume is a comprehensive study of the challenges and opportunities facing the BIMSTEC, The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. BIMSTEC was established to promote economic cooperation among rising economic powers in South and Southeast Asia, but after years of stagnation the need for renewed regional commitment is starker than ever. The book studies the BIMSTEC's present status and highlights the ways in which the organisation can be rejuvenated to forge a stronger Bay of Bengal community. It looks at key themes such as the challenges to regional integration, India's "Look East" and Thailand's "Look West" policies, transport connectivity and tourism within the BIMSTEC and the aspirations of various member countries. It also examines BIMSTEC's approach towards climate change, disaster management and rehabilitation. A timely contribution, this volume will be useful for scholars and researchers of international relations, South Asian studies, foreign policy, diplomacy, Southeast Asian studies, defence and strategic affairs, maritime studies, international trade, regional cooperation and political studies.

This volume is a comprehensive study of the challenges and opportunities facing the BIMSTEC, The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. BIMSTEC was established to promote economic cooperation among rising economic powers in South and Southeast Asia, but after years of stagnation the need for renewed regional commitment is starker than ever. The book studies the BIMSTEC's present status and highlights the ways in which the organisation can be rejuvenated to forge a stronger Bay of Bengal community. It looks at key themes such as the challenges to regional integration, India's "Look East" and Thailand's "Look West" policies, transport connectivity and tourism within the BIMSTEC and the aspirations of various member countries. It also examines BIMSTEC's approach towards climate change, disaster management and rehabilitation. A timely contribution, this volume will be useful for scholars and researchers of international relations, South Asian studies, foreign policy, diplomacy, Southeast Asian studies, defence and strategic affairs, maritime studies, international trade, regional cooperation and political studies.

This book presents a holistic perspective across various facets of culture, history, politics, economics and strategy in India’s relations with neighbouring South and Southeast Asian countries. This book not only analyses various issues of India’s foreign policy diplomacy but also explores the perspectives of neighbouring countries towards India. It engages experts from India and its South and Southeast Asian neighbours to discuss topics, such as overland linkages, people-to-people interactions, opportunities and implications of India’s Act East policy on its neighbours in changing geopolitical backdrop. The book emphasises on the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and suggests a greater scope of regional cooperation on emergencies such as health crises in the Bay region. This rich collection of essays has strategic and scholarly relevance for researchers working on a wide range of topics related to development studies, cultural studies, Asian studies as well as policy makers and general readers.

BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) represents one of the most diverse regions of the world. Providing a unique link between South Asia and Southeast Asia, it brings together 1.5 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.7 trillion. This volume focuses on issues related to connectivity, commerce, and security challenges facing BIMSTEC. It studies BIMSTEC's relevance as an inter-governmental organization in the changing international milieu. The volume discusses the necessity of connectivity to enhance Bay solidarity and analyses the political, strategic and security concerns that restrain commercial connectivity. It also looks at the Bay of Bengal region as a zone of competition-and possible collaboration-between the littoral countries and major powers involved in the region. Comprehensive and topical, this volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of international relations, South Asian studies, foreign policy, diplomacy, Southeast Asian studies, defence and strategic affairs, maritime studies, international trade, regional cooperation, and political studies.

BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) represents one of the most diverse regions of the world. Providing a unique link between South Asia and Southeast Asia, it brings together 1.5 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.7 trillion. This volume focuses on issues related to connectivity, commerce, and security challenges facing BIMSTEC. It studies BIMSTEC's relevance as an inter-governmental organization in the changing international milieu. The volume discusses the necessity of connectivity to enhance Bay solidarity and analyses the political, strategic and security concerns that restrain commercial connectivity. It also looks at the Bay of Bengal region as a zone of competition-and possible collaboration-between the littoral countries and major powers involved in the region. Comprehensive and topical, this volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of international relations, South Asian studies, foreign policy, diplomacy, Southeast Asian studies, defence and strategic affairs, maritime studies, international trade, regional cooperation, and political studies.

The book seeks to situate caste as a discursive category in the discussion of Partition in Bengal. In conventional narratives of Partition, the role of the Dalit or the Scheduled Castes is either completely ignored or mentioned in passing. The authors addresse this discursive absence and argues that in Bengal the Dalits were neither passive onlookers nor accidental victims of Partition politics and violence, which ruptured their unity and weakened their political autonomy. They were the worst victims of Partition. When the Dalit peasants of Eastern Bengal began to migrate to India after 1950, they were seen as the 'burden' of a frail economy of West Bengal, and the Indian state did not provide them with a proper rehabilitation package. They were first segregated in fenced refugee camps where life was unbearable, and then dispersed to other parts of India - first to the Andaman Islands and the neighbouring states, and then to the inhospitable terrains of Dandakaranya, where they could be used as cheap labour for various development projects. This book looks critically at their participation in Partition politics, the reasons for their migration three years after Partition, their insufferable life and struggles in the refugee camps, their negotiations with caste and gender identities in these new environments, their organized protests against camp maladministration, and finally their satyagraha campaigns against the Indian state's refugee dispersal policy. This book looks at how refugee politics impacted Dalit identity and protest movements in post-Partition West Bengal.

The Rohingya of Myanmar are one of the world's most persecuted minority populations without citizenship. After the latest exodus from Myanmar in 2017, there are now more than half a million Rohingya in Bangladesh living in camps, often in conditions of abject poverty, malnutrition and without proper access to shelter or work permits. Some of them are now compelled to take to the seas in perilous journeys to the Southeast Asian countries in search of a better life. They are now asked to go back to Myanmar, but without any promise of citizenship or an end to discrimination. This book looks at the Rohingya in the South Asian region, primarily India and Bangladesh. It explores the broader picture of the historical and political dimensions of the Rohingya crisis, and examines subjects of statelessness, human rights and humanitarian protection of these victims of forced migration. Further, it chronicles the actual process of emergence of a stateless community - the transformation of a national group into a stateless existence without basic rights.

The Rohingya of Myanmar are one of the world's most persecuted minority populations without citizenship. After the latest exodus from Myanmar in 2017, there are now more than half a million Rohingya in Bangladesh living in camps, often in conditions of abject poverty, malnutrition and without proper access to shelter or work permits. Some of them are now compelled to take to the seas in perilous journeys to the Southeast Asian countries in search of a better life. They are now asked to go back to Myanmar, but without any promise of citizenship or an end to discrimination. This book looks at the Rohingya in the South Asian region, primarily India and Bangladesh. It explores the broader picture of the historical and political dimensions of the Rohingya crisis, and examines subjects of statelessness, human rights and humanitarian protection of these victims of forced migration. Further, it chronicles the actual process of emergence of a stateless community - the transformation of a national group into a stateless existence without basic rights.

This book explores the India-Myanmar relationship in terms of ethnicity, security and connectivity. With the process of democratic transition in Myanmar since 2011 and the ongoing Rohingya crisis, issues related to cross-border insurgency are one of the most important factors that determine bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries. The volume discusses a diverse range of themes - historical dimensions of cooperation; contested territories, resistance and violence in India-Myanmar borderlands; ethnic linkages; political economy of India-Myanmar cooperation; and Act East Policy - to examine the prospects and challenges of the strategic partnership between India and Myanmar, and analyzes further possibilities to move forward. The chapters further look at cross-border informal commercial exchanges, public health, population movements, and problems of connectivity and infrastructure projects. Comprehensive, topical and with its rich empirical data, the volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political studies, international relations, security studies, foreign policy, contemporary history, and South Asian studies as well as government bodies and think tanks.