Executive Summary

India with one of the fastest growing economies in the world and one of the greatest sources of human capital, embraced the 21^st century with hope of further development that would improve the lives of their over 1 billion inhabitants. This pursuit has seen great strides in many sectors and has increased India’s importance in regional and global affairs. However, like all nations who have sought greater development, such ambitions have been met with domestic and international challenges. This paper takes a look at a few challenges that have emerged in India.

We begin with a discussion of India’s rising middle class and its impact on the rest of Indian society. Mateo Rebecchi argues that the middle class has emerged as a result of liberalized economic policies that have increased wealth disparity within India. In this way, economic development has challenged India to address emerging income gap issues and class conflicts that has resulted.

Another challenge that has emerged as a result of increased development in India is increased environmental problems. Such environmental issues are the subject of our second chapter. In chapter two Graham Salinger discusses the role that India sees itself in addressing global climate change while development remains a top priority. This chapter begins with a discussion of India’s environmental challenges and highlights some recent policies that the Indian government has undertaken to address such issues. This chapter concludes by putting India’s efforts in the context of global efforts to combat global climate change but points out that India remains resistant to address such issues at the cost of further development.

In chapter three Noah Wallis discusses the challenges that India faces in absorbing refugees from neighboring countries. He does so through the examination of challenges that Tibetan refugees face in Indian society and connects their narrative to the larger Indian story of tolerance and secular inclusiveness. This chapter discusses the theme of diversity in Indian society and the challenges to preserving such diversity. As the chapter highlights, India is the largest and most pluralistic democracy in the world which contains a rich diversity of religions, ethnicities and languages. Diversity in India has been an important characteristic of the state since its independence in 1947. As a concept, diversity, is widely appreciated and respected, however, one can perceive tensions increasing based on recent immigration into India from neighboring countries. One group facing the uncertainty of attitude towards recent immigration to India are Tibetan refugees— refugees who fled Tibet following the fleet of the Dalai Lama in October of 1959. Even as Tibetan refugees immigrated decades ago, their non-Hindu identity may become a factor as xenophobia and immigration concerns rise in India.

In our final chapter Brad Fichter discusses the future of India –ASEAN relations within the context of India’s emerging role in the Southern Asian region. This chapter argues that Indian engagement in Southeast Asian regional associations is not a deliberate attempt to balance China’s regional power but rather an attempt to address shared regional challenges including piracy, international terrorism, and humanitarian assistance capabilities. In this way, our final chapter builds on the domestic socioeconomic challenges that India faces as a developing country that have been discussed and looks at India’s regional strategic relations as it relates to addressing shared challenges and policy goals.