why India's physical location on the globe is significant
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
I’ll start this answer by quoting Lord Curzon who wrote this in his 1909 essay ‘The Place of India in the Empire’:
“It is obvious, indeed, that the master of India, must, under modern conditions, be the greatest power in the Asiatic Continent, and therefore, it may be added, in the world. The central position of India, its magnificent resources, its teeming multitude of men, its great trading harbours, its reserve of military strength, supplying an army always in a high state of efficiency and capable of being hurled at a moment’s notice upon any given point either of Asia and Africa- all there are assets of precious values. On the west, India must exercise a predominant influence over the destinies of Persia and Afghanistan; on the north, it can veto any rival in Tibet; on the north-east and east, it can exert great pressure upon China, and it is one of the guardians of the autonomous existence of Siam. On the high seas it commands the routes to Australia and the China Sea.”
You see, this is what a British thought about the benefits of India’s location that also about 110 years ago. But this is one of the many important aspects of India’s location on the globe.
Geographically India has a unique semi-tropical climate and this is a prime factor for India being a diverse country. Our latitudinal extent coupled with our location in Indian ocean produces the diverse flora and fauna that we have. India being a sub-continent is itself a proof of the importance of India’s geography, at least in Indian ocean region.
History tells us that India has been a focal point in international trade routes. It was an important link between products of tropical countries east to it with the consumer countries of temperate zone to the west. The monsoon winds played a major role in guiding the ships from our eastern coast all the way to the Persian Gulf.
India never had any major rival in Indian ocean region and that had helped India in becoming an economic power in pre-industrial times. During the colonial period, as Curzon has rightly pointed out, India was a gateway to the Asia at that time and helped the British to dominate the region surrounding it.
Independence gave India the chance to take advantage of its location in defining the foreign policy. Proximity to other colonized countries like that of south-east Asian and African countries provided a suitable condition to support the Non-Alignment. But major setbacks such as losing to China in 1962 and poor economic conditions hampered its chances to influence the Indian ocean region. And India was unable to show the importance of its location on the map at least till the dawn of this century.
But things have steadily changed since we opened our economy to the world drastically in 1991. India’s economic growth and the fact that India still does not have any major rival in Indian ocean region except our brother enemy, have again shifted the geopolitics back to this region. China is all set to become the next superpower and if India wants to have any ambition to check China’s influence and to alleviate its position in the world, it must take advantage of its location.
We as Indian have always supported that peace should prevail in the world and India’s central location which is surrounded by the Middle East, Central Asia, East Africa, China, Southeast Asia and Indian ocean gives it athe advantage to project its power outwards and make the world a better place.
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