The Dialectics of (New) Geopolitics, (De)Globalisation and (Sub) Regional Identities in India

Abstract

This paper attempts to understand the dialectics of geopolitics, globalisation and regional identities in India. Territorial boundaries and sovereignty are important constituents in framing geopolitics. Embedded in the territorial boundaries and sovereignty are metaphors, images and geographical codes that conjure up the geopolitics of the self as against the other. The engagement of the self and the other creates order of similarities and difference. Being different gives rise to otherness and helps in the (re)formation of (sub)regional identities. Globalisation, on the other hand, tries to homogenise space and space-based identities and highlights the dichotomy between the all encompassing global and the local. Geopolitics stresses the role of territory and sovereignty while globalisation tries to obliterate and reconfigure these forces. This paper discusses, at length, the dialectics in the form of narratives of geopolitics, globalisation and regional identities in India and argues that geopolitics and globalisation under the shadow of supranational institutions and transnational corporations have acquired multifarious and dynamic forms. Although globalisation has certainly penetrated, influenced and continues to influence India, it has not lessened the impact of territory and sovereignty. Instead, it has resulted in dynamic reconfiguration and (de) globalisation of space.