INDIA’S RESPONSE TO NEW GREAT GAME IN CENTRAL ASIA

The power vacuum created with the fall of USSR had made Central Asia the focal point for contestation among both the regional like Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, India and External players for influence, power, hegemony racing to establish links via through roads, pipelines, air routes, alliances and what not. These great powers made central Asian region as a chessboard for outsmarting one another through cleverness and wit and at times adapting policies of appeasement. In other words, Central Asia has become a “zone of intense, complex interaction between local conditions and the larger world system. India being one of the contestants though small and later comer have found a significant place as for as its connections, policies and strategies vis-à-vis Central Asia is concerned. The paper is an attempt to analyze the place of India vis-à-vis other players of the region.