It is also one of the most intricately partitioned lands on Earth. Torn by communal and class violence, the region has given rise to extreme forms of religious and ethnic nationalisms and communist movements. The Indian state's survival instinct and pursuit of regional hegemony have only exacerbated such extremes.

This book scripts a new history of India's eastward-looking diplomacy and statecraft. Narrated against the backdrop of separatist resistance within India's own north-eastern states, as well as rivalry with Beijing and Islamabad in Myanmar and Bangladesh, it offers a simple but compelling argument. The aspirations of 'Act East' mask an uncomfortable truth: India privileges political stability over economic opportunity in this region. In his chronicle of a state's struggle to overcome war, displacement and interventionism, Avinash Paliwal lays bare the limits of independent India's influence in its near east.