To ‘Act East’ requires India to ‘Learn East’
But the eastern seaboard of India has been not just looking but acting east for millennia. Acting East thus comes naturally to the people of eastern India. However, colonial rule destroyed the Indian shipbuilding industry and maritime activities, disrupting these ancient links. The post-independence foreign policy gave greater emphasis to western and even global links while downplaying regional interactions; so it is only since 1992 that the people of India were once again exhorted to ‘Look East.’
India’s ‘Look East’ policy was enunciated in 1992 by then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. The ‘Look East’ policy helped over the years to significantly deepen and diversify our links and operational frameworks with the ASEAN and its members at the formal level, creating numerous agreed frameworks and platforms at pan-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and bilateral levels to underpin and support wider entrepreneurial and civil society interactions.
However, these were not utilized to their full potential by the target groups. Hence, the paradigm shift in 2014 from ‘Look East’ to ‘Act East’. The ‘Act East’ policy was announced at the 12th India-ASEAN Summit in 2014. It conveyed a clear intent on the part of India to up-scaling its engagement with the ASEAN member States. The ‘Act East’ policy emphasizes Connectivity, Commerce, and Culture as the focus areas of action for a greater ASEAN-India integration.
But the eastern seaboard of India has been not just looking but acting east for millennia. Acting East thus comes naturally to the people of eastern India. However, colonial rule destroyed the Indian shipbuilding industry and maritime activities, disrupting these ancient links. The post-independence foreign policy gave greater emphasis to western and even global links while downplaying regional interactions; so it is only since 1992 that the people of India were once again exhorted to ‘Look East.’
Premised on the natural geographical connectivity and contiguity, particularly between eastern and Northeast India on the one hand and Southeast Asia on the other, the successful implementation of this policy catapults eastern India into the centre of gravity of the ‘Act East’ policy.
Who, then, will ‘Act East’? All of us in India stand to benefit eventually from the opening of new opportunities in other lands. However, the leaders of that movement will be scholars and researchers, opinion-makers and influencers from eastern India, upon whom falls the responsibility of exploration and discovery. Travel is a key function for it, for tourism, education, professional pursuits and, even, medical treatment. Intelligent use of India’s cultural affinities and soft power capability will make us new friends, help discover what we can do together and so flourish in unison and even in tandem.
The more substantive engagement will be of our entrepreneurs and traders, who may explore and establish new markets for Indian goods and bring back new treasures in technology and techniques, goods and services from eastern lands. So in effect all civil society, as well as governments of the states and Centre, are stakeholders and they must take responsibility to play their roles effectively to restore and expand India’s footprint in eastern Asia. However, to succeed we must increase our awareness, knowledge, and understanding of the region. Therefore, I would like to propose here the insertion of a new phase in the process of transition from ‘Look East’ to ‘Act East’, i.e., ‘Learn East’.
Knowledge is power. In order to effectively ‘Act East’ we must first try to ‘Learn East’ once again to rediscover the opportunities for prosperity that lie therein. We must take a greater interest in the lands and peoples to the east of us, in the northeast of India, Bangladesh, the ASEAN region and beyond: to learn their languages, cultures and society, their capabilities, achievements, wants and needs, to identify and fulfil those we can provide for mutual benefit and profit. This requires investment in the study to acquire knowledge and undertake analysis of each territory. Learning languages is an easy and interesting way to begin. Each language learned opens up a new world, a new society, and its culture, enabling communication and mediation necessary to create friendships and partnerships that open new opportunities for fulfilment and prosperity. The fact that many of these eastern languages are based on Sanskrit roots and the Bengali or Roman scripts should make it far easier for us to acquire fluency in them.
‘Acting East’, effectively, therefore, needs concerted and sustained action by all stakeholders to facilitate Indian economic engagement, market development, risk mitigation, and value realization to maximize revenue earning by India from exports of goods and services as well as investment in the territories and creation of/ entry into value and supply chains which ensure the steady and incremental business with BIMSTEC and ASEAN, both as collective entities as well as with their member States individually.