| Summary/Abstract |
With the emergence of India as an ‘Asian leader’, India’s Northeast has acquired both strategic and cultural importance particularly in recent years. While much has been written on the strategic part of India’s Asia policy with the obvious focus on the need for containing China, correspondingly very little – if anything - is written on either the cultural importance of Asia to India or similar importance of India to other Asian countries. For one thing, cultural dimensions are viewed in foreign policy circles as ‘soft power’ assets that can be deployed and mobilized at one’s will in order to accomplish strategic objectives. For another, culture is viewed in these circles not only in instrumentalist terms but also as an undifferentiated whole that pertains to the nation as an equally seamless entity.
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