海上印度：寻求坚定的身份（英）

ISSUE NO. 339 NOVEMBER 2021© 2021 Observer Research Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, archived, retained or transmitted through print, speech or electronic media without prior written approval from ORF.Occasional PaperMaritime India: The Quest for a Steadfast Identity AbstractIndia’s geography lends itself favourably to the cultivation and expansion of maritime ties. Yet, for much of the country’s contemporary history, the country has overlooked these opportunities. As the world reengages with its vast ocean spaces, India too, has become more willing and capable of participating in the maritime domain. This paper outlines the evolution of the country’s maritime outlook as it shifts its largely continental-oriented focus to one in which maritime engagements are vital to foreign policy. The paper accounts for the advances in New Delhi’s strategic and diplomatic capacity, the attendant impediments, roadblocks, and imperatives. It argues that going forward, India’s maritime role will shape, and in turn will be shaped, by developments in the Indo-Pacific.Attribution: Pratnashree Basu, “Maritime India: The Quest for a Steadfast Identity,” ORF Occasional Paper No. 339, November 2021, Observer Research Foundation. Pratnashree Basu 3IntroductionIndia’s maritime geography is rich: it has a 7,517-km-long coast line, where lie nine coastal states that are home to a number of ports that handle some 1,400 million tonnes of cargo ever year.1 India being peninsular, its maritime linkages have historically involved trade, religion, and culture; these early associations, however, were severed over time. Especially after independence, the focus of India’s foreign outreach had become almost entirely continental. The liberalisation reforms of the 1990s can be regarded as an inflection point for India’s priorities: it accorded greater attention to port development and made its maritime position an important part of the national agenda. In more recent years, since 2014, the focus on maritime capacity development and outreach has grown manifold with national policies being dedicated to the development of the maritime sector.While policy directives and naval engagements began to take shape and expand in the early 1990s, it was only in the latter half of the last decade that the conversation around these linkages gained prominence. Today there is a greater range and number of stakeholders engaging in the discourse around maritime geopolitics, commerce, infrastructure, ecology, and defence. This paper argues that the shift in India’s maritime outlook has been simultaneous to, and in many respects accelerated by the strategic imperatives posed by developments in the Indo-Pacific region. To continue with its maritime transformation, however, India needs to address existing and emerging impediments. The transformation in India’s maritime identity calls for a thorough approach that will involve maritime infrastructure, a