ABSTRACT
The start of the Look East Policy marked a new orientation in India’s foreign policy of looking towards Southeast and East Asia, bringing out the significance of the existing geographical proximity of Northeast India to mainland Southeast Asia. In the emerging equation, Myanmar is looked upon by India as a partner for maintenance of regional security and shared economic growth. The state of Manipur has become important in the country’s new foreign policy direction because of its geostrategic location, manifested in the opening of the border trade. It provides the most viable land link for India to Myanmar, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Whatever happens in Manipur has strong repercussions for India’s foreign policy strategy in this part of the country. Yet the state is yet to be free from a vicious circle of various inherent impediments – especially from a traditionally hegemonic political-economic setup. Inclusive governance is still a non-entity. As such, any critical domestic issue associated with the state and externalities from across the border will affect India’s Myanmar policy. The attempt of the study is to understand the Manipur dynamics as an outcome of the policy and the challenges facing the policy itself, and the significance it has assumed in India’s reoriented Act East Policy.
