From Compulsion to Choice: South Asia's Drifting from India to China
Abstract This article examines the shifting geopolitical landscape of South Asia through the scholarly perspectives of researchers and analysts from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Rather than framing the region's gradual move from Indian developmental hegemony towards Chinese partnership as a diplomatic failure for New Delhi, this analysis synthesizes regional scholarship to argue that South Asian nations "tolerated" India's developmental assistance when no alternative existed. However, China's geometric economic rise presented these nations with a genuine choice—one they exercised in favour of their primary national interest: development. Drawing upon the work of scholars including Chulanee Attanayake (Sri Lanka), Shanjida Shahab Uddin (Bangladesh), Ume Farwa (Pakistan), and Nihar R. Nayak (Nepal), this article demonstrates that constrained Indian developmental dynamics, bureaucratic obstructions, and China's resource abundance made the South Asi...