Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist October 2019 | Page 48

LONG TERM
FRIENDSHIP GOAL,
INDIA-MYANMAR
BY DR. SANTISHREE DHULIPUDI PANDIT*
M
yanmar-India relations have been long ignored due
to our obsession of looking to our western border.
It was a masterstroke by the P.V. Narasimha Rao’s
government to inaugurate the Look East policy in 1993. This
paradigm shift brought us to a region where we have no
confl icts with any of the countries. Myanmar is our gateway to
South East Asia and the Indo-Pacifi c regions. Our North East
is culturally closely knit with Myanmar and so is the Indian
civilization and culture through Buddhism and Hinduism.
The Look East policy became the Act East policy in 2014.
This has in Bertil Linter’s words inaugurated the Great Game
East between India, China for the struggle of Asia’s Most
Volatile Frontier. In civilizational terms between Islam and
Buddhism, the power and control of Myanmar for its gas and
mineral resources and the access to the blue waters of the Bay
of Bengal and the Indian Ocean regions through an isolated
Myanmar by China.
India opened up Myanmar from its isolation. History,
geography, culture and colonial rule have brought us together.
India’s North East shares a 1643 kilometres land border.
Maritime relations with Tamil merchants from the Sangam
periods and later the Indian diaspora are well known. The
Myanmarese script is close to the Indian Grantha script
and 90 percent of the people follow Theravada Buddhism.
During the Second World War, the Indian Nationalist leader
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose gave the clarion call for India’s
Independence struggle with, “Give me blood and I will give
you freedom”, arching his INA into India through Japanese
occupied Myanmar. India established diplomatic relations
with Myanmar after its independence in 1948. India and
Myanmar relationship offi cially got underway after the Treaty
of Friendship was signed in 1951.
The overthrow of Prime Minister U Nu when on a visit
to India in 1962 in a military coup led by the General U Ne
48 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 10 • October 2019, Noida