The Great Powers and the Indian Sub-Continent*

Abstract

LIKE -the Netherlands and like Britain, the Indian sub-continent looks out across the sea while at the same time being deeply engaged in the politics of the continental land-mass in its hinterland. The outside powers with interests in the sub-continent therefore fall into two broad categories-those whose interests arise from what might be called the ' oceanic' aspect of the sub-continent's external relations, and those whose interests stem from their 'continental' aspect. Before the British conquest of India the 'continental' aspect predominated; but at the same time India's 'oceanic' connections ranged from the Mediterranean basin to southern Africa and south-east Asia. And although during the 200 years down to 1947, and even since then, the dominant connection has been ' oceanic ' in character, there is a sense in which the ' continental ' aspect of India's strategic situation is the more enduring and permanent. Although the sea is open, it is flux; while the mountains are a barrier, they do not fly away. Nevertheless, we must not underestimate the contemporary importance of the Indian sub-continent's 'oceanic' relations, which of course include its relations with Britain. For centuries the external trade of the subcontinental states has been very largely maritime rather than landward; and the economic connections across the continental land routes have been very much less isignificant than those which have lain across the ocean routes. This bias was not introduced but was merely reinforced by the experience of British rule. The British Indian settlement in the African hinterland, in South Africa, in the West Indies and in the United Kingdom itself was only an extension of the previously existing immigration in south-east Asia and along the east African and Arabian seaboard. While the underlying forms of the Indian and Pakistani character-if not perhaps the character of the Bengalis-derive from successive ' continental ' conquests stemming from the Near East, the dominant culture in the contemporary sub-continent is that which was imposed by an ' oceanic' occupation originating in Western Europe. Thus the sub-continental states are all members of the Commonwealth -or they were, until Pakistan withdrew in January 1972. They are all