ABSTRACT
Chapter 11 examines how the BRI has impacted South Asia. It investigates how academic perceptions and policies have evolved in India and Pakistan in response to the BRI since 2013. These two states provide a unique agency, defined as the ability to influence or resist influence, in the BRI context. The region’s dominant power, India, is a staunch critic that refuses to sit at the BRI table. The region’s other power, Pakistan, hosts the BRI’s flagship project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and is the single largest recipient of BRI investment. Through interviews with leading Indian and Pakistani academics, the chapter shows how they make sense of China in the region, providing understanding of the BRI’s interplay with South Asia’s various geopolitical fissures.
