Abstract
Thant Myint-U’s Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia seeks to unravel both the historical and contemporary issues involved in the evolution of the intra-state and inter-state relations within and among China, India, and Burma, and it tries to analyse what it means for Burma in the long run. The book is divided into three main broad sections dealing with the three regions of Burma, Southwest China, and Northeast India respectively. The author has lucidly used history as an effective tool to analyse the present, aided by maps and rich narrative. At the very outset, he emphasizes the importance of geography in shaping the contours of socio-politico-economic contacts over time in this vast region. He cites the example of the Chinese imperial envoys, during the Han dynasty rule (206
Geopolitically, this sub-region lies at the crossroads of the three important markets of China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Full of unparalleled ethno-cultural diversities, it lay beyond the control of the respective governments for a very long time. Today, it is home to a huge population of 150 million, and a potential base for rapid economic growth and development through the optimum utilization of its vast natural, mineral, and human resources. The importance of maintaining a settled and calm periphery is not lost on the policymakers in New Delhi, Beijing, and Naypwitaw. Burma realizes that it is not only the connecting bridge between South, Southeast, and East Asia, but also the key to the successful implementation of India’s Look East Policy and China’s opening up of its south-western region to the Indian Ocean. Of paramount importance is the availing of such opportunities by the new ruling dispensation in Burma to bring in much-needed development and a decent standard of living for its people.
For China, access to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean (Two Oceans Policy) serves to open up its vast western hinterland to development along similar lines as its eastern Pacific coast. Moreover, China sources approximately 80 per cent of its oil imports through the Straits of Malacca, which can be choked by its enemies in any future confrontations (the Malacca Dilemma). Therefore, to secure its energy needs, China is wooing Burma to develop its offshore gas and oilfields and road and rail connectivity, as well as an oil pipeline from Kunming to the Burmese coast.
India, similarly, has had interests in Burma since antiquity. The partition of India in 1947 led to the emergence of a new land-locked entity called Northeast India, sharing 98 per cent of its borders with India’s neighbours, and connected with the rest of the country only through the narrow sliver of land along the Siliguri corridor. India’s Look East Policy attempts to open up this land mass to East and Southeast Asia through Burma by not only building upon the earlier ethnic and cultural contacts, but also through the development of physical infrastructure for the promotion of trade and commerce to develop this remote region.
This book, coming after Thant Myint-U’s much-acclaimed The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), explains to the uninitiated not only the interconnected histories of Northeast India, Burma, and Southwest China, but also the potential of this sub-region to emerge as an economic hub. It fills a huge gap in the present literature by highlighting the social, cultural, economic, political, and geographical issues related to this vast territory of innumerable tribes and sub-tribes. The author’s ability to weave hard facts and thread logically sound arguments seamlessly makes the book very readable. That it is well researched is beyond doubt as demonstrated by Thant’s keen sense of history as well as the exhaustive list of materials utilized to substantiate his claims. However, one issue which could have been dealt with more comprehensively is the historical, sociological, and anthropological antecedents of the ‘hill versus valley’ and ‘mainstream versus periphery’ divides plaguing this region for a very long time – something that James C. Scott tries to explain in his book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland and Southeast Asia (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009). All said and done, for all the people of this sub-region and the policymakers in the respective national and provincial capitals, Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia is a must-read.