ABSTRACT
This chapter initiates the first phase of India’s relations with the countries of Southeast Asia during the tenure of its first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (August 1947–May 1964) followed by the brief term of Lal Bahadur Shastri (June 1964–January 1966). Nehru premised his policy on the virtue of idealism, emphasised Asian solidarity or Asianism, coupled with the path of non-alignment and presented it as a viable alternative that could be adopted by the newly independent countries of Asia in general and Southeast Asia in particular. This chapter juxtaposes the acknowledgement of Nehru’s policy serving as an ambitious exercise in encouraging its counterparts in Southeast Asia to re-think the future of their relations with India, with the analysis of whether his optimism regarding Asian resurgence was misplaced, given the experiences and consequences of the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
