Securing South Asia: A Realist OdysseyA Realist Odyssey

Abstract

The chapter accounts for the growth of territorial nationalism and realism undergirding India’s security thinking in South Asian. The author concentrates here on the political and security narratives of Indian elites and shows how they have thought about India’s security primarily in realist, geopolitical terms. He also shows that while the perspectives differ on certain issues across India’s major political parties, when entrusted with actual policymaking, these differences lessen quite remarkably. The chapter also discusses the perspectives of the strategic elites in India who legitimate the narrative of space as power. While these experts are not a part of the ‘ruling elite’, their role in package legitimation of a realist or power-centric reading of the neighbourhood influences the official narratives to a great extent. The accessibility and privileging of certain discourses over others is an excellent indicator of the spatial thinking of the state.