| Abstract: | This research paper explores the ways in which China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is reshaping India’s strategic landscape in South Asia and the wider Indian Ocean Region. It investigates how Chinese-led corridors, port developments, and financing practices influence India’s security calculus, regional economic role, and leadership in connectivity initiatives. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study combines process-tracing of key cases—such as Pakistan’s CPEC, Sri Lanka’s Hambantota and Colombo projects, Myanmar’s Kyaukpyu, Bangladesh’s Payra, Nepal’s cross-border infrastructure, and the Maldives’ urban and transport schemes—with quantitative measures including trade flows, foreign invest, debt vulnerability, port activity, maritime routes, and defence cooperation patterns. The analysis engages theoretical perspectives from realism, geopolitics, and complex interdependence. It also evaluates India’s strategic toolkit—Neighbourhood First, SAGAR, Act East, BIMSTEC, QUAD, IMEEC, Chabahar, and development partnerships. The study ultimately seeks to identify the conditions under which BRI projects grant China lasting strategic influence, when host-state choices dilute such leverage, and how India can refine its policy instruments to safeguard its interests. |
